witch
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 4 meanings
A person (now usually particularly a woman) who uses magical or similar supernatural powers to influence or predict events, particularly one with malicious motives.
A person who follows Wicca or similar New Age pagan beliefs.
One who exercises more-than-common power of attraction; a charming or bewitching person.
One given to mischief, especially a woman or child.
Verb 2 meanings
To dowse for water.
To bewitch.
Etymology
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”).
Similar and opposite words
WITCH at a glance
WITCH has 5 letters and scores 13 points in Scrabble (W 4 + I 1 + T 1 + C 3 + H 4) and 13 in Words With Friends, before board bonuses. It ranks #5,922 by how often it appears in everyday English. It is valid in ENABLE, NWL2023, Collins/SOWPODS.
Rhymes with witch
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