cantrip
/ˈkæntɹɪp/
cantrip noun: a spell or incantation; a trifling magic trick.
Noun
cantrip (plural cantrips)
- A spell or incantation; a trifling magic trick.
- Coffins stood round, like open presses,
That shaw’d the dead in their last dresses;
And by some devilish cantrip slight
Each in its cauld hand held a light […]1791, Robert Burns, "Tam o' Shanter", lines 125-8, http://www.bartleby.com/337/825.html#txt28 - I have some poor little skill—not like yours, Master Doctor, of course—in small spells and cantrips that I’d be glad to use against our enemies if it was agreeable to all concerned.1951, C. S. Lewis, chapter 12, in Prince Caspian, Collins, published 1998
- Synonyms:
- enchantment, hex, spell, chantment, charm, conjuration, craft, dwimmer, incantation, magic
- Coffins stood round, like open presses,
- A wilful piece of trickery or mischief.
- A minor spell, typically one that can be cast without preparation.
Examples of cantrip in a sentence
- For one thing, I've no intention of distributing cantrips and costly crucifixes to every rapable woman in the Parish of St Magloire.1976, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Something Nasty in the Woodshed, Penguin, published 2001, page 422:
- And when I say now the power of the name Jesus makes you whole, I indulge in no petty mountebank’s cantrips.1984, Anthony Burgess, The Kingdom Of The Wicked:
Synonyms of cantrip
Forms of cantrip
| plural | cantrips |
|---|---|
| alternative form | cantrap |
| alternative form | cantrup |
| alternative form | cantraip |
Origin of cantrip
From Middle Scots cantrip, cantrap (“a magic charm; a trick”). Further origin obscure, but likely a corruption of Scottish Gaelic canntaireachd (identical to Irish cantaireacht), referring to a system of musical notation consisting of a series of otherwise meaningless syllables memorised by pipers in learning their tunes; this was then used similarly to abracadabra. Regardless of details, ultimately derived from Latin cantō (“to sing, chant, play an instrument”).
Questions about cantrip
- What does cantrip mean?
- Cantrip means a spell or incantation; a trifling magic trick.
- How do you use cantrip in a sentence?
- For one thing, I've no intention of distributing cantrips and costly crucifixes to every rapable woman in the Parish of St Magloire.
- What part of speech is cantrip?
- Cantrip is a noun.
- How do you pronounce cantrip?
- Cantrip is pronounced /ˈkæntɹɪp/.
- What is the plural of cantrip?
- The plural of cantrip is cantrips.
Words near cantrip in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cantrip (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-NaomiAmethyst-cantrip.wav.
Cite this entry: “cantrip.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cantrip. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.