geas
/ɡɛʃ/
geas noun: a (generally magical) vow, obligation or injunction placed upon someone to do or not do something, which typically brings harm if violated and blessings if obeyed.
Noun
- A (generally magical) vow, obligation or injunction placed upon someone to do or not do something, which typically brings harm if violated and blessings if obeyed.
- It can send us where it will with a task laid upon us—a geas, if you like.1989, Roger Zelazny, Knight of Shadows
- Galaad stood up again and turned to Mrs. Whitaker. 'Gracious lady, keeper of the Holy of Holies, let me now depart this place with the Blessed Chalice, that my journeyings may be ended and my geas fulfilled.'1992, Neil Gaiman, "Chivalry", republished in 1998, Smoke and Mirrors
- A mystical compulsion.
- The memory came upon him like a geas, overwhelming his revulsion, numbing his heart.1980, Stephen R. Donaldson, The Wounded Land, page 162
- A geas is your own personal haunting by yourself! […] Kassandra, a Greek prophetess who always envisioned dreadful happenings, had a geas on her. She might have wanted to be a queen or a housewife, a warrior or a merchant, but she wasn't (even though a geas won't interfere in any of your pursuits)....2000, Ly De Angeles, Witchcraft: Theory and Practice, Llewellyn Worldwide, page 176
Examples of geas in a sentence
- The geas is the last effective enchantment we shall consider.2003, Arthur Rowan, The Lore of the Bard: A Guide to the Celtic and Druid Mysteries, Llewellyn Worldwide, page 126:
- A geas is a powerful binding spell that binds its subject to a particular task or restriction.2012, Alferian Gwydion MacLir, Wandlore: The Art of Crafting the Ultimate Magical Tool, Llewellyn Worldwide, →ISBN, page 37:
- The Sorcerer Royal's servants had formerly been bound by a geas against disclosure of any detail of his household affairs, breach of which was visited by the most terrible revenge.2016, Zen Cho, Sorcerer to the Crown, Penguin, →ISBN, page 181:
- I recognized the self-geas against telling a falsehood in the particular conversation.2018, Poul Anderson, Operation Chaos and Operation Luna, Open Road Media, →ISBN:
Forms of geas
| plural | geasa |
|---|---|
| plural | geases |
| alternative form | geass |
| alternative form | Code Geass |
Origin of geas
Borrowed, like English geis, from Irish geis (“injunction; taboo, prohibition, spell”). The pronunciation resembles Irish geis, though the spelling matches its synonymous but heterophonous alternative form geas.
Words that rhyme with geas
21 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about geas
- What does geas mean?
- Geas means a (generally magical) vow, obligation or injunction placed upon someone to do or not do something, which typically brings harm if violated and blessings if obeyed.
- How do you use geas in a sentence?
- The geas is the last effective enchantment we shall consider.
- What part of speech is geas?
- Geas is a noun.
- How do you pronounce geas?
- Geas is pronounced /ɡɛʃ/.
- What is the plural of geas?
- The plural of geas is geasa.
Words near geas in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: geas (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:
Cite this entry: “geas.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/geas. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.