Word.ws English Dictionary

open sesame

open sesame phrase: open up (especially referring to doors).

Phrase (1)

open sesame

  1. open up (especially referring to doors)

Noun

open sesame (plural open sesames)

  1. Any successful means of achieving a result, especially means that are magical or technical, or otherwise beyond the understanding of most people.
    • "The blue topaz was bought by me, from the chieftain of the tribe to which Quacal belongs. It is an ‘open sesame’ to his favor."1899, William Wallace Cook, “Aquastor”, in Overland Monthly, page 15
    • He who can read a true book aright has an open sesame to audiences with the great and wise of all time.1905, John Ruskin, The Works of John Ruskin, page lv

Phrase (2) capitalized: open Sesame

open Sesame

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of open sesame.
    • The hinges of the hall door were so stiff during Miss Magan’s tenancy, that Dr. Fleming, who as a cousin once ventured to visit the moneyed recluse, had to call at a neighbouring chemist’s for sweet oil ere he felt safe in crying ‘Open Sesame.’1892, W[illiam] J[ohn] Fitzpatrick, Secret Service under Pitt, London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], page 150
    • Thus, one by one, the gates have been thrown open. God’s providence is manifest. “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” The fable of Aladdin before the cave, crying “Open Sesame!” has been realized; and by this circumstance a tremendous emphasis is put upon the great...1899, David James Burrell, “The Logic of Events”, in God and the People and Other Sermons, New York, N.Y.: Wilbur B. Ketcham […], pages 277–278

open sesame meaning in Tamil, Arabic and Persian

open sesame in Tamil

open up
திறந்திடு சீசே tiṟantiṭu cīcē

open sesame in Arabic

open up
اِفْتَح يَا سِمْسِم iftaḥ yā simsim

open sesame in Persian

open up
سسمی باز شو sesemi bâz šov

Examples of open sesame in a sentence

  • Relevancy not always an open sesame having in mind the over-all authority and discretion of the trial judge.1963, William J. Palmer, Trial Tactics in California, page 57:
  • When Mussolini was a young chap, he dabbled with socialism, imagining it to be an open sesame to a better society.2001 September 24, Gareth McLean, “Sympathy for a devil”, in The Guardian:

Forms of open sesame

Phrase
alternative formopen, Sesame
alternative formopen, sesame
alternative formopen Sesame
Noun
pluralopen sesames

Origin of open sesame

From its use in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, translating French Sésame, ouvre-toi in Antoine Galland's version of the Ali Baba story in the One Thousand and One Nights, possibly based on an oral Arabic source. Not, as some have purported, a corruption of Open, says me!.

Questions about open sesame

What does open sesame mean?
Open sesame means open up (especially referring to doors).
What is open sesame in Tamil?
Open sesame in Tamil is திறந்திடு சீசே (tiṟantiṭu cīcē). See Open sesame meaning in Tamil.
How do you use open sesame in a sentence?
Relevancy not always an open sesame having in mind the over-all authority and discretion of the trial judge.
What part of speech is open sesame?
Open sesame can be a phrase or a noun.

Words near open sesame in the dictionary

  1. open season
  2. open seasons
  3. open seating
  4. open secret
  5. open secrets
  6. open sesame
  7. open sesames
  8. open set
  9. open sets
  10. open shop
  11. open shops

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: open sesame (page history and authors); open Sesame (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-open sesame.wav.

Cite this entry: “open sesame.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/open_sesame. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.