incantation
/ɪnkanˈteɪʃ(ə)n
/noun
1A series of words said as a magic spell or charm: an incantation to raise the dead...
- But inside, there were all kinds of unbelievable spells, incantations, charms, potion recipes, and information about magic.
- Along with the spells, charms, incantations, and potion recipes, there were manuals, instructions, factoids, magical messages, and even stories.
- With great solemnity, they prepared the sleeping body of Miri with magic charms and incantations, and called upon the ancestors and the gods to call away Karkameni.
Synonyms
chant, invocation, conjuration, magic spell, magic formula, rune;
abracadabra, open sesame;
North American hex, mojo;
New Zealand makutu
1.1 [mass noun] The use of words as a magic spell: there was no magic in such incantation...
- Is rhetoric, as the ancients posed, a form of incantation or magic?
- Again there is nothing of magic, or casting of spells, or of incantation.
- The murmur of incantation gurgled into silence, but not before a blazing inferno of heat erupted around him.
Synonyms
chanting, intonation, recitation
Derivatives
incantational
incantatory
- Wells has received insufficient credit as a writer of rhythmic, incantatory prose, long-breath paragraphs to cut against his tight journalistic reportage.
- The section's title poem, an incantatory piece, again acknowledges the weight of exchange, although the poem feels buoyant and light; it is a kind of waking song for the narrator's yet-unborn baby.
- With the exception of nine lineated and titled poems spread throughout the text, Spar is a collection of untitled prose poems, giving it the feel of a book-length work as the incantatory intensity of each poem bleeds into the next.
Origin
Late Middle English: via Old French from late Latin incantatio(n-), from incantare 'chant, bewitch' (see incant).
see enchant, incentive