witch
/wɪt͡ʃ/
witch noun: a person (now usually particularly a woman) who uses magical or similar supernatural powers to influence or predict events, particularly one with malicious motives.
Noun (1)
witch (plural witches)
- A person (now usually particularly a woman) who uses magical or similar supernatural powers to influence or predict events, particularly one with malicious motives.
- He cannot abide the old woman of Brentford; he swears she's a witch.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- It was easy to understand that they were witches, who had turned themselves into ravens.1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 186
- A person who follows Wicca or similar New Age pagan beliefs.
- To be considered a Witch of a particular tradition you will have to be initiated into that tradition by someone else within that tradition, after following their specific program of study.2013 November 8, Edain McCoy, If You Want to be a Witch: A Practical Introduction to the Craft, Llewellyn Worldwide, →ISBN
- For many neopagan witch traditions the moon is seen as both a symbol of the Goddess and of the witch's power, symbolically, and the belief is that the full moon is the best time for all acts of magic.2019 March 29, Trevor Greenfield, Pagan Portals - What is Modern Witchcraft?: Contemporary Developments in the Ancient Craft, John Hunt Publishing, →ISBN
- An ugly or unpleasant woman.
- I hate that old witch.
- Synonyms:
- old woman
- One who exercises more-than-common power of attraction; a charming or bewitching person.
- One given to mischief, especially a woman or child.
- A certain curve of the third order, described by Maria Agnesi under the name versiera.
- A storm petrel.
- Glyptocephalus cynoglossus (witch flounder or Torbay sole), found in the North Atlantic.
- Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis (megrim), found in the North Atlantic.
- Caulopsetta scapha (syn. Arnoglossus scapha), found near New Zealand.
- Any member of the species Araotes lapithis of Indomalayan butterflies, of the family Lycaenidae.
Verb (1)
witch (third-person singular simple present witches, present participle witching, simple past and past participle witched)
- To dowse for water.
- And I told him there's a vein down there, I know 'caus I used to—uh, I went out here and witched one for this house, at the corner.1964, Hilda E. Webb, Water Witching and Other Folk Talents in the Neighborhood of Bloomington, Indiana
- Nothing would make him shut up until I brought my dogwood stick into his office and witched for water.2006, Helen Ayers, Appalachian Daughter: The Exodus of the Mountaineers from Appalachia
Verb (2)
witch (third-person singular simple present witches, present participle witching, simple past and past participle witched)
- To practise witchcraft.
- To bewitch.
- She has witched the Queen's womb long ago, and witched the whole harvest.1900, Gilbert Murray, Andromache: A Play in Three Acts
- The little man was seething and shaking, near collapse with fear and anger. “Tell 'em, Alvy.” “A tenday ago, Will came to the Cockatoo acting crazy, so scared he'd pissed hisself. Said the sorcerer had found him in the stables and witched him.”2012, Carol Berg, The Daemon Prism: A Novel of the Collegia Magica, Penguin, →ISBN
Noun (2)
witch (plural witches)
Noun (3)
witch (plural witches)
- A bitch.
Proper noun capitalized: WITCH
WITCH
- Acronym of Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell.
- Late that year the New York Rat covered a feminist demonstration staged by the radical group WITCH (Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell), whose marchers exorcised money from the financial district and protested exploitive burlesque houses in downtown New York.1991, Timothy Miller, The hippies and American values, University of Tennessee Press, →ISBN, page 68
witch meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
witch in Hindi
- person who uses magic
- चुड़ैल cuṛail, जादूगरनी jādūgarnī, डाइन ḍāin
witch in Tamil
- person who uses magic
- சூனியக்காரி cūṉiyakkāri, விரிச்சிகன் viriccikaṉ
witch in Marathi
- person who uses magic
- चेटकीण ceṭkīṇ
witch in Urdu
- person who uses magic
- چُڑَیل cuṛail
More languagesFewer languages
- witch in Telugu
- మంత్రగత్తె mantragatte
- witch in Malayalam
- മന്ത്രവാദം mantravādaṁ
- witch in Kannada
- ಮಾಟಗಾತಿ māṭagāti, ಮಾಂತ್ರಿಕ ಸ್ತ್ರೀ māntrika strī, ಮಾಯಗಾತಿ māyagāti
- witch in Gujarati
- વિચ vic, ચૂડેલ cūḍel
- witch in Nepali
- जादुकरीलाई
- witch in Pashto
- شیشکه šišaka, جادوګره jādugara
- witch in Tagalog
- mananagisama, mangkukulam
- witch in Arabic
- سَاحِرَة sāḥira
- witch in Malay
- ahli sihir, penyihir, sahir
- witch in Indonesian
- ahli sihir, penyihir, nenek lampir, nenek sihir
- witch in Thai
- แม่มด mɛ̂ɛ-mót
- witch in Vietnamese
- phù thuỷ
- witch in Myanmar
- ရွာသူ rwasu, စုန်း cun:, ကဝေ ka.we
- Kashmiri
- ڈٲن ḍạ̄n, رانٛٹَس rānṭas
Examples of witch in a sentence
- However, the word "witch" came to be applied almost exclusively to women who were believed to achieve their power by making a blood pact with the Devil, sealed with their blood.1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 106:
- Recently in Sydney we met a male witch who claimed that witchcraft was his full-time occupation.1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 69:
- Several of the Leechbook recipes would have done credit to the witches in Macbeth.1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000...
- I remember Don's builder came out and “witched” for a well.2010, C.J. Ott, True Stories: Memories, Musings, Odds and Ends:
Synonyms of witch
18 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of witch
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | witches |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | witches |
| present participle | witching |
| past participle | witched |
| past | witched |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | W.I.T.C.H. |
Origin of witch
The noun is from Middle English wicche, from Old English wiċċe (“(female) witch; sorceress”) and wiċċa (“(male) witch; sorcerer; warlock”), deverbative from wiċċian (“to practice sorcery”), from Proto-Germanic *wikkōną (compare West Frisian wikje, wikke (“to foretell; to warn”), German Low German wicken (“to soothsay”), Dutch wikken, wichelen (“to dowse; to divine”)), from Proto-Indo-European *wik-néh₂-, derivation of *weyk- (“to consecrate; to separate”); akin to Latin victima (“sacrificial victim”), Lithuanian viẽkas (“life-force”), Sanskrit वि॒नक्ति॑ (vinákti, “to set apart; to separate out”). Possibly related to wicked; see that entry for more. The verb derives from the noun. The mathematical curve derives from a translation by John Colson of the Italian versiera, from a confusion with versoria (“rope”) and avversaria (“witch”).
From Middle English wicchen, from Old English wiċċian, from Proto-Germanic *wikkōną, from Proto-Indo-European *wik-néh₂-, derivation of *weyk-. In the senses arising in Middle English and later probably aphetic from bewitch.
Compare wick.
Words formed from witch
- as nervous as a witch
- bewitch
- black witch
- cold as a witch's tit
- cottage witch
- half-witch
- hedge witch
- kitchen witch
- man-witch
- nonwitch
- shadow witch
- steppe-witch
- water-witch
- white witch
- wind-witch
- witch alder
- witch ball
- Witchblr
- witch bottle
- witchcamp
- witchcraft
- witch craze
- witch cult
- witch doctor
- witch doctress
- witchdom
- witch-elm
- witch elm
- witchery
- witches' besom
- witches' brew
- witches' butter
- witches' cauldron
- witches' knickers
- witches' Sabbath
- witches' stone
- witch-finder
- witchfinder
- witchfinding
- witch flounder
- witch grass
- witchgrass
- witch hat
- witch-hazel cone gall
- witch-hazel cone gall aphid
- witch hazel
- witch-hazel
- witch house
- witch hunter
- witch-hunting
- witch hunt
- witch-hunt
- witch-hunty
- witching hour
- witchish
- witchkind
- witch-knot
- witch ladder
- witchlet
- witchlike
Phrases with witch
Words that rhyme with witch
25 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about witch
- What does witch mean?
- Witch means a person (now usually particularly a woman) who uses magical or similar supernatural powers to influence or predict events, particularly one with malicious motives.
- What is witch in Hindi?
- Witch in Hindi is चुड़ैल (cuṛail), जादूगरनी (jādūgarnī), डाइन (ḍāin). See Witch meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use witch in a sentence?
- However, the word "witch" came to be applied almost exclusively to women who were believed to achieve their power by making a blood pact with the Devil, sealed with their blood.
- What part of speech is witch?
- Witch can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce witch?
- Witch is pronounced /wɪt͡ʃ/.
- What is the plural of witch?
- The plural of witch is witches.
Words near witch in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: witch (page history and authors); WITCH (page history and authors); witch (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-us-witch.ogg.
Cite this entry: “witch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/witch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.