: magic based on the assumption that a person or thing can be supernaturally affected through its name or an object representing it
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebUntil this point, sympathetic magic had been a term psychologists used to account for magical belief systems in traditional cultures, such as hunter-gatherer societies.New York Times, 27 Dec. 2021 There is a kind of sympathetic magic at work—because Biden transcends the darkness of grief, America can, through him, transcend the darkness of the history that has produced Trump. Fintan O’toole, The New York Review of Books, 26 Aug. 2020