witch

CEFRA2

/wɪt͡ʃ/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A person, usually a woman, believed to use magic powers.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A person who follows Wicca or similar New Age pagan beliefs.

Examples

  • Between ourselves, the fat ugly witch is on a diet.

  • The strange-looking woman was thought to be a witch.

At a glance

Sits at A2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. An ugly or unpleasant woman.

  2. A person (now usually particularly a woman) who uses magical or similar supernatural powers to influence or predict events.

  3. A person (now usually particularly a woman) who uses magical or similar supernatural powers to influence or predict events, particularly one with malicious motives.

More examples

In context

  • The wicked witch cast a spell on the man and turned him into a bug.

  • I hate that old witch.

  • He cannot abide the old woman of Brentford; he swears she's a witch.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The old blank cast a powerful spell that turned the prince into a frog.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Old English wiċċa Middle English wicche English witch 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”). Possibly related to wicked; see that entr...