Definitions

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

  • noun A member of the Zoroastrian priestly caste of the Medes and Persians.
  • noun In the New Testament, one of the wise men from the East, traditionally held to be three, who traveled to Bethlehem to pay homage to the infant Jesus.
  • noun A sorcerer; a magician.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of the members of the learned and priestly caste in ancient Persia, who had official charge of the sacred rites, practised interpretation of dreams, professed supernatural arts, and were distinguished by peculiarities of dress and insignia.
  • noun In Christian history, one of the “wise men” who, according to the Gospel of Matthew (ii. 1, 2), came from the East to Jerusalem to do homage to the new-born King of the Jews.

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

  • noun a magician or sorcerer of ancient times.
  • noun a member of the Zoroastrian priesthood of the ancient Persians.

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

  • noun common usage magician, and derogatorily sorcerer, trickster, conjurer, charlatan
  • noun a Zoroastrian priest

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

  • noun a magician or sorcerer of ancient times
  • noun a member of the Zoroastrian priesthood of the ancient Persians

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Middle English magi, magi, from Latin magī, pl. of magus, sorcerer, magus, from Greek magos, from Old Persian maguš; see magh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin magus, from Ancient Greek μάγος (magos, "magician"), from Μάγος (Magos, "Magian"), of an indeterminate Old Iranian origin (see Μάγος for details)

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Examples

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  • "'I don't give a hoot for Galen. Or Paracelsus. Or any foreign magus with his slobberings and mumblings. These people are the merest frauds.'"

    —Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost (New York: Riverhead Books, 1998), 52

    October 6, 2008

  • Oh, might some benevolent magus

    With gift of his wisdom assuage us,

    And bring us, we pray,

    On this Christmas Day

    Surcease from the sorrows that plague us.

    December 25, 2018