shaman
/ˈʃɑːmən/US/ˈʃɑːmən/
shaman noun: a traditional faith healer.
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Noun
shaman (plural shamans or (hypercorrect) shamen)
- A traditional faith healer.
- Synonyms:
- witch doctor
- A member of certain tribal societies who acts as a spiritual or religious medium between the concrete and spirit worlds; sometimes also a healer.
- Near-synonyms: medicine man, medicine woman, priest-doctor, witch doctor
- Shepard: What rites did you go through to become chief shaman?
- Shaman: Becoming the shaman is excruciating. I passed through rites that made me wish to die. I carry the scars on my soul.
- Shaman: I must perform rites each dawn and dusk to keep me bound into our krogan nature. Our spirit is one of violence and death. I must be attuned to that.2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Tuchanka
- Synonyms:
- medicine man, medicine woman, priest-doctor, witch doctor
shaman meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
shaman in Hindi
- spiritual or religious medium between the concrete and spirit worlds
- शामन śāman, ओझा ojhā
shaman in Tamil
- ஷாமன், ஷமான், ஷாமான்
shaman in Marathi
- शामन, शमन
shaman in Urdu
- شمن, شمان, شامن
More languagesFewer languages
- shaman in Bengali
- ওঝা ōjha
- shaman in Telugu
- షామన్, షమాన్, షమన్
- shaman in Malayalam
- പ്രേതാർച്ചകപൂജാരി, രോഗഹാരി, മന്ത്രവാദി, മന്ത്രകാരൻ
- shaman in Kannada
- ಶಾಮನ್, ಶಮನ್, ಷಾಮನ್
- shaman in Punjabi
- ਸ਼ਮਨ, ਸ਼ਮਾਨ, ਸ਼ਾਮਨ
- shaman in Gujarati
- શામન, શમન
- shaman in Odia
- ଶାମନ୍, ଶାମନ
- shaman in Nepali
- झाक्री jhākrī
- shaman in Arabic
- شَامَان šāmān, كَاهِن kāhin, عَرَّاف ʕarrāf
- shaman in Malay
- pawang
- shaman in Indonesian
- dukun
- shaman in Persian
- شمن šaman
- shaman in Thai
- ร่างทรง râang-song, คนทรง kon-song, คนทรงเจ้า, คนทรงเจ้าเข้าผี
- shaman in Vietnamese
- thầy đồng, thầy pháp
Examples of shaman in a sentence
- I'm gonna go and roll a new shaman tonight.
- Korean shamans are thought to be capable of inspired speech, in which they convey the words of the gods.
- The Khek shamans are believed to be in direct contact with the Ioka.
Synonyms of shaman
Forms of shaman
| plural | shamans |
|---|---|
| plural hypercorrect | shamen |
Origin of shaman
Borrowed from German Schamane, from Russian шама́н (šamán), from Evenki шама̄н (şamān), сама̄н (samān), from Proto-Tungusic *samān. The Evenki word is possibly derived from the root ша- (şa-, “to know”); or else a loanword from Tocharian B ṣamāne (“monk”) or Chinese 沙門 /沙门 (shāmén, “Buddhist monk”), from Pali samaṇa from Sanskrit श्रमण (śramaṇa, “ascetic, monk, devotee”), from श्रम (śrama, “weariness, exhaustion; labor, toil; etc.”), which would make this a doublet of sramana.
Words formed from shaman
Words that rhyme with shaman
Questions about shaman
- What does shaman mean?
- Shaman means a traditional faith healer.
- What is shaman in Hindi?
- Shaman in Hindi is शामन (śāman), ओझा (ojhā). See Shaman meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is shaman?
- Shaman is a noun.
- How do you pronounce shaman?
- Shaman is pronounced /ˈʃɑːmən/ (UK).
- What is the plural of shaman?
- The plural of shaman is shamans.
Words near shaman in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shaman (page history and authors); shaman (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shaman (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shaman (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shaman (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shaman (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); shaman (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shaman (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shaman (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shaman (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); झाक्री (Nepali) (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-shaman.wav.
Cite this entry: “shaman.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shaman. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.