magic word

Noun

magic word (plural magic words)

1. Any word that has a magical effect when uttered.
2. One of the words please, thank you, or hello.
   • If you learn to use magic words when you are little, it would be easy in your adulthood.
   • What's the magic word?
3. (broadly) Any word that is considered very significant in a certain situation or context.
   • When someone offers you drugs, the magic word is no.
4. A string of text having some special function or purpose.
   • One of the magic words used in the MediaWiki software is __NOTOC__, which hides the table of contents that would normally be on the page.
   • The header consists of an optional self-execution script, a magic word, a version number, and the word offset of the first instruction, relative to the magic word.2021, Clinton L. Jeffery, Build Your Own Programming Language, page 273