Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act or art of conjuring.
  • noun A magic spell or incantation.
  • noun A magic trick or magical effect.
  • noun Archaic A solemn appeal; an entreaty.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A conspiracy; a plot; a league for criminal ends.
  • noun The act of calling on or invoking lay a sacred name; adjuration; supplication; solemn entreaty.
  • noun A magical form of words used with the view of evoking supernatural aid; an incantation; an enchantment; a magic spell.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of calling or summoning by a sacred name, or in solemn manner; the act of binding by an oath; an earnest entreaty; adjuration.
  • noun The act or process of invoking supernatural aid by the use of a magical form of words; the practice of magic arts; incantation; enchantment.
  • noun obsolete A league for a criminal purpose; conspiracy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun conjuring, legerdemain or magic
  • noun a magic trick
  • noun obsolete The act of calling or summoning by a sacred name, or in solemn manner, or binding by an oath; an earnest entreaty; adjuration.
  • noun obsolete A league for a criminal purpose; conspiracy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a ritual recitation of words or sounds believed to have a magical effect
  • noun an illusory feat; considered magical by naive observers
  • noun calling up a spirit or devil

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin coniuration-, stem of coniuratio ("a swearing together, a conspiracy")

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Examples

  • He spoke a word of conjuration and the creature stood before him, ready to do his bidding.

    Masked Lou Anders 2010

  • He spoke a word of conjuration and the creature stood before him, ready to do his bidding.

    Masked Lou Anders 2010

  • Harriot swore at the colonel for the veriest spoil-sport she had ever seen, and she whispered to me – "The reason he laughs is because he is afraid of our suspecting the truth of him, that he believes tout de bon in conjuration, and the devil, and all that."

    Belinda 1801

  • I do not hesitate to assert that death itself were preferable to a condition of mind such as enslaves those who are the victims of that cruel superstitious belief known as conjuration, when from the very nature of its teachings they are cut off from all hope, and relegated to gloomy forebodings and despair.

    Recollections of the Inhabitants, Localities, Superstitions, and KuKlux Outrages of the Carolinas. By a "Carpet-Bagger" Who Was Born and Lived There 1880

  • But patience is besought, for vastly more than a face of unrivalled perfection, the conjuration is a woman who yet lives in history as such

    The Prince of India — Volume 01 Lewis Wallace 1866

  • And you know that what we call scientific knowledge is not any kind of conjuration, as people sometimes suppose, but it is simply the application of the same principles of common sense that we apply to common knowledge, carried out, if I may so speak, to knowledge which is uncommon.

    Essays 2007

  • In the decemviral code the extreme penalty is attached to the crime of witchcraft or conjuration: 'Let him be capitally punished who shall have bewitched the fruits of the earth, or by either kind of conjuration (_excantando neque incantando_) shall have conjured away his neighbour's corn into his own field,' &c., an enactment sneered at in Justinian's _Institutes_ in Seneca's words.

    The Superstitions of Witchcraft Howard Williams

  • The fable was started by Laplace, who invented the "conjuration", though he tried to tone for his untruthfulness by omitting the phrase in the fourth edition of his "Essai philosophique" (see LAPLACE).

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 13: Revelation-Stock 1840-1916 1913

  • And you know that what we call scientific knowledge is not any kind of conjuration, as people sometimes suppose, but it is simply the application of the same principles of common sense that we apply to common knowledge, carried out, if I may so speak, to knowledge which is uncommon.

    Lectures and Essays Thomas Henry Huxley 1860

  • And you know that what we call scientific knowledge is not any kind of conjuration, as people sometimes suppose, but it is simply the application of the same principles of common sense that we apply to common knowledge, carried out, if I may so speak, to knowledge which is uncommon.

    Yeast Thomas Henry Huxley 1860

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