bewitchment

noun

be·​witch·​ment bi-ˈwich-mənt 

bē-

1

a

: the act or power of bewitching

b

: a spell that bewitches

2

: the state of being bewitched

Synonyms

• abracadabra
• charm
• conjuration
• enchantment
• glamour
• glamor
• hex
• incantation
• invocation
• spell
• whammy

Examples of bewitchment in a Sentence

the hope that there was some bewitchment that would turn their jerky son-in-law into a prince

while stuck in traffic, I could have used a bit of bewitchment to clear the road of other drivers

Recent Examples on the Web

By the end, the production seems to be working extra hard to keep the show’s seductiveness level from sinking, pumping in the odd flicker of magic whenever the score falls down on the job of bewitchment. —Vulture, 17 Nov. 2023

Mercury well aspected on the 6th finds you in accord with others and Venus in Pisces accents playfulness on the 8th and romantic bewitchment on the 15th. —Katharine Merlin, Town & Country, 1 Feb. 2023

The ergot fungus grows on cereals such as rye and produces several neurological symptoms that were historically attributed to bewitchment for many centuries. —Rebecca Kreston, Discover Magazine, 1 Dec. 2015

One depends on a set of abstract rules; the other on a sequence of mutual bewitchments. —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 16 Dec. 2019

Here, where both land and life are flat, the privations of rural teenage existence yield wild and elemental bewitchments. —New York Times, 1 June 2017

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1616, in the meaning defined at sense 1a