Word.ws English Dictionary

imprecation

/ˌɪm.pɹɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/

imprecation noun: the act of imprecating, or invoking evil upon someone; a prayer that a curse or calamity may befall someone.

Noun

imprecation (countable and uncountable, plural imprecations)

  1. The act of imprecating, or invoking evil upon someone; a prayer that a curse or calamity may befall someone.
    • Hear then this dreadful imprecation; hear it: / 'Tis lay'd on all; not any one exempt: […]1679, [John] Dryden, [Nathaniel] Lee, Oedipus: A Tragedy. […], London: […] R. Bentley and M. Magnes […], →OCLC, Act I, page 15
    • Her son turned to look at her as she reeled and swayed in the middle of the room, her fierce face convulsed with passion, her blotched arms raised high in imprecation. "May Gawd curse her forever," she shrieked.1893, Stephen Crane, chapter 10, in Maggie, Girl of the Streets
  2. A curse.
    • Mr. Gamfield growled a fierce imprecation on the donkey generally, but more particularly on his eyes; and, running after him, bestowed a blow on his head.1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], chapter III, in Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC
    • He drank the spirits and impatiently bade us go; terminating his command with a sequel of horrid imprecations too bad to repeat or remember.1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter V, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC

imprecation meaning in Bengali and Malayalam

imprecation in Bengali

অভিশাপ, শাপ, অশুভ কামনা, অমঙ্গল প্রার্থনা, কটু কথা, গালি

imprecation in Malayalam

curse, malediction, hex
ശാപം, പ്രാക്ക്, പിരാക്ക്, ശാപവചനം, ദുരേഷണ, ദുരീഷണ
curse, swear word, expletive
ശാപവാക്ക്, ശാപവചനം, ദെെവനിന്ദാവചനം, അശ്ലീലവാക്ക്, അസംസ്കൃതപദം, അശുദ്ധവാക്ക്

Forms of imprecation

pluralimprecations

Origin of imprecation

Learned borrowing from Latin imprecātiō (“calling down of curses”), from imprecor (“call down, invoke”).

Words formed from imprecation

Words that rhyme with imprecation

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about imprecation

What does imprecation mean?
Imprecation means the act of imprecating, or invoking evil upon someone; a prayer that a curse or calamity may befall someone.
What is imprecation in Bengali?
Imprecation in Bengali is অভিশাপ, শাপ, অশুভ কামনা. See Imprecation meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is imprecation?
Imprecation is a noun.
How do you pronounce imprecation?
Imprecation is pronounced /ˌɪm.pɹɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/ (UK).
What is the plural of imprecation?
The plural of imprecation is imprecations.

Words near imprecation in the dictionary

  1. imprecated
  2. imprecates
  3. imprecateth
  4. imprecating
  5. imprecatingly
  6. imprecation
  7. imprecational
  8. imprecations
  9. imprecative
  10. imprecatives
  11. imprecator

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: imprecation (page history and authors); imprecation (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); imprecation (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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.

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