bewitchment

noun

be·​witch·​ment bi-ˈwich-mənt How to pronounce bewitchment (audio)
bē-
1
a
: the act or power of bewitching
b
: a spell that bewitches
2
: the state of being bewitched

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

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bewitchment.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1616, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of bewitchment was circa 1616

Dictionary Entries Near bewitchment

Cite this Entry

“Bewitchment.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bewitchment. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

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