incantation
/ɪnkænˈteɪʃən/
incantation noun: the act or process of using formulas and/or usually rhyming words, sung or spoken, with occult ceremonies, for the purpose of raising spirits, producing enchantment, or creating other magical results.
Noun
incantation (plural incantations)
- The act or process of using formulas and/or usually rhyming words, sung or spoken, with occult ceremonies, for the purpose of raising spirits, producing enchantment, or creating other magical results.
- new years eve we dropped mushrooms / and danced around the house / making music with everything that we found / incantation replaced resolution2008, “Red Letter Year”, in Red Letter Year, performed by Ani Difranco
- Synonyms:
- bewitchment, galdr, bewitching, spellcasting, enchanting, enchantment, fascination, ensorcellment, witchery, witching
- A formula of words used as above.
- My ancient Incantations are too weake, / And hell too ſtrong for me to buckle with:1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- We did not know what scrambled eggs were, and we fancied that it must be some Red Indian or Sandwich Islands sort of dish that required dances and incantations for its proper cooking.1889, Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat […]
- Synonyms:
- enchantment, hex, spell, cantrip, chantment, charm, conjuration, craft, dwimmer, magic
- Any esoteric command or procedure.
- The appropriate incantation of route is shown below; the gw keyword tells it that the next argument denotes a gateway.1998, John Purcell, Robert Kiesling, Linux: The Complete Reference: Book 1, page 412
- There's more than one command incantation to create an AVI. It's all a question of experimenting with the different audio and video codecs.2005, Kyle Rankin, Linux Multimedia Hacks: Tips & Tools for Taming Images, Audio, and Video
incantation meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
incantation in Hindi
- process
- अभिचार abhicār
- formula
- अभिचार abhicār
incantation in Tamil
- பிரார்த்தனை, மந்திரச்சொல்
incantation in Urdu
- incantation, charm
- ٹونا ṭonā
- incantation
- منتر mantar, جادو jādū
- incantation, invocation
- دعوت da'vat
incantation in Bengali
- incantation
- জাদু jadu
More languagesFewer languages
- incantation in Malayalam
- മന്ത്രം, മന്ത്രിതം, മന്ത്രോച്ചാരണം, മന്ത്രപ്രയോഗം
- incantation in Kannada
- ಮಂತ್ರಪಠನ, ಮಂತ್ರೋಚ್ಚಾರಣೆ, ಮಾಟಪ್ರಯೋಗ, ಮಂತ್ರಪ್ರಯೋಗ
- incantation in Punjabi
- ਮੰਤਰ mantar
- incantation in Gujarati
- દાવત dāvat
- incantation in Malay
- jampi, mentera, mantera, serapah
Examples of incantation in a sentence
- Then he produced a string of beads, and after placing it over the scratchings he had made on the soil, jerked out some strange incantation in a voice that thickened and quivered with terror.1912, Elliott O'Donnell, Werwolves:
- It is nothing new, these vital lies men tell themselves, muttering and mumbling them like charms and incantations against the powers of Night.1913 August, Jack London, John Barleycorn, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC:
- Yarrow is one of the aboriginal English plants, and from time immemorial it has been used in incantations and by witches.1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, The Old English Herbals, Longmans, Green and Co.:
- Servers move from being special snowflakes to being disposable numbers on a list that can be created and destroyed without requiring someone to remember the specific incantation to make it work.2017, James Pogran, Learning PowerShell DSC, page 11:
Synonyms of incantation
- bewitchment
- galdr
- bewitching
- spellcasting
- enchanting
- enchantment
- ensorcellment
- witchery
- witching
- hex
17 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of incantation
| plural | incantations |
|---|---|
| alternative form | encantation |
Origin of incantation
From Middle English incantacioun, from Old French incantation, from Latin incantatio. More at enchant.
Words formed from incantation
Words that rhyme with incantation
- station
- collation
- accommodation
- presentation
- derivation
- information
- modulation
- translation
- application
- fixation
- generation
- orientation
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- citation
- combination
- communication
- conjugation
- constellation
- determination
- elevation
- operation
- relation
- reservation
- alternation
- condensation
- conversation
- deviation
- excavation
- foliation
- formation
- foundation
- incarnation
- interpretation
- representation
- retardation
- speculation
- termination
- abbreviation
- adaptation
- articulation
- bifurcation
- concentration
- congregation
- declination
- degradation
- expectation
- extenuation
- gradation
- observation
- population
- preparation
- reconciliation
- rotation
- separation
- situation
- vexation
- vindication
- accumulation
- administration
- aggregation
- appropriation
Questions about incantation
- What does incantation mean?
- Incantation means the act or process of using formulas and/or usually rhyming words, sung or spoken, with occult ceremonies, for the purpose of raising spirits, producing enchantment, or creating other magical results.
- What is incantation in Hindi?
- Incantation in Hindi is अभिचार (abhicār). See Incantation meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use incantation in a sentence?
- Then he produced a string of beads, and after placing it over the scratchings he had made on the soil, jerked out some strange incantation in a voice that thickened and quivered with terror.
- What part of speech is incantation?
- Incantation is a noun.
- How do you pronounce incantation?
- Incantation is pronounced /ɪnkænˈteɪʃən/.
- What is the plural of incantation?
- The plural of incantation is incantations.
Words near incantation in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: incantation (page history and authors); incantation (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); جادو (Urdu) (page history and authors); জাদু (Bengali) (page history and authors); incantation (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); incantation (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਮੰਤਰ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); દાવત (Gujarati) (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: En-au-incantation.ogg.
Cite this entry: “incantation.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/incantation. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.