Word.ws English Dictionary

summoning sickness

summoning sickness noun: the inability of a creature to attack or use certain abilities during the turn when it comes into play.

Noun

summoning sickness (uncountable)

  1. (collectible card games) The inability of a creature to attack or use certain abilities during the turn when it comes into play.
    • Many times creatures with summoning sickness will not get an opportunity to be used before they are destroyed.1995, Charles Wolfe, Deep Magic: Advanced Strategies for Experienced Players of Magic: The Gathering, page 44
    • The Factory may not be tapped to increase its own toughness if it suffers from summoning sickness.1997, George H. Baxter, Baxter on Magic: A Guide to Proper Playing Techniques for Magic: The Gathering, page 22
    Synonyms:
    jet lag

Synonyms of summoning sickness

Questions about summoning sickness

What does summoning sickness mean?
Summoning sickness means the inability of a creature to attack or use certain abilities during the turn when it comes into play.
What part of speech is summoning sickness?
Summoning sickness is a noun.

Words near summoning sickness in the dictionary

  1. summoner
  2. summoners
  3. summonest
  4. summoneth
  5. summoning
  6. summoning sickness
  7. summoning up
  8. summoningly
  9. summonings
  10. summons
  11. summons up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: summoning sickness (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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