Incantation meaning

ĭn'kăn-tā'shən
The definition of an incantation is a series of words used in a chant, in magic or used to cast a spell.

The words chanted by a witch to catch a spell are an example of an incantation.

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Ritual recitation of verbal charms or spells to produce a magic effect.
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A formula used in ritual recitation; a verbal charm or spell.
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A conventionalized utterance repeated without thought or aptness; a formula.

The pious incantations of the administration.

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The chanting of words or formulas that are believed to cast a spell or perform other magic.
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Words or a formula so chanted.
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The act or process of using formulas and/or usually rhyming words, sung or spoken, with occult ceremonies, for the purpose of raising spirits, producing enchantment, or creating other magical results.
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A formula of words used as above.
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Origin of incantation

Middle English incantacioun from Old French incantation from Late Latin incantātiō incantātiōn- spell from Latin incantātus past participle of incantāre to enchant enchant

Sentence Examples

  • Less influenced by the astral-theological system are the old incantation texts which were gathered together into series.

  • They professed to raise spirits by incantation; and Kelly dictated the utterances to Dee, who wrote them down and interpreted them.

  • Students of Tallquist's Maklu series of incantation or of the surpu series edited by Zimmern (in his Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Babylonischen Religion) will recollect the images over which the priest sorcerer recites his formulae.

  • She is constantly invoked, in the well-known idyll (ii.) of Theocritus, in the incantation to bring back a woman's faithless lover.

  • The ritual alone which accompanied divination practices and incantation formulae and was a chief factor in the celebration of festival days and of days set aside for one reason or the other to the worship of some god or goddess or group of deities, is free from traces of the astral theology.

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Words near incantation in the Dictionary