enchantment

English

Alternative forms

• inchantment

Etymology

From Middle English enchauntement, from Old French enchantement.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈt͡ʃænt.mənt/, /ən-/, /ɛn-/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtʃɑːnt.mənt/, /ən-/, /ɛn-/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

enchantment (countable and uncountable, plural enchantments)

1. The act of enchanting or the feeling of being enchanted.
   • 1885, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, “Which Treats of the Heroic and Prodigious Battle Don Quixote had with Certain Skins of Red Wine, and Brings the Novel of ‘The Ill-advised Curiosity’ to a Close”, in John Ormsby, transl., The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha […] In Four Vols, volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co. […], →OCLC, part I, page 175:

     I see now that it's all enchantment in this house; for the last time, on this very spot where I am now, I got ever so many thumps and thwacks without knowing who gave them to me, or being able to see anybody; and now this head is not to be seen anywhere about, though I saw it cut off with my own eyes and the blood running from the body as if from a fountain.

2. Something that enchants; a magical spell.

Related terms

• enchant

Translations

act of enchantment or feeling of being enchanted

• Bulgarian: очарование (bg) n (očarovanie), омагьосване (bg) n (omagjosvane)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 魅力 (zh) (mèilì)

• Finnish: loihtiminen, lumoaminen (fi) (act); lumoutuminen (feeling)
• French: enchantement (fr) m, ensorcellement (fr) m
• Galician: encantamento (gl) m
• Hungarian: (literally) varázslás (hu), elvarázsolás, elvarázsoltság, (more broadly) bűvölet (hu), elragadtatás (hu), igézet (hu)
• Japanese: 魅力 (ja) (みりょく, miryoku)
• Middle English: enchauntement, chauntement
• Portuguese: encantamento (pt) m
• Romanian: încântare (ro) f, delectare (ro) f, desfătare (ro) f
• Russian: очарова́ние (ru) n (očarovánije)
• Spanish: encantamiento (es) m
• Turkish: büyülenme (tr), büyülem

something that enchants

• Armenian: թովք (tʻovkʻ), թովչանք (hy) (tʻovčʻankʻ)
• Bulgarian: магия (bg) f (magija)
• Catalan: encanteri (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 魔法 (zh) (mófǎ)

• Esperanto: sorĉeraĵo
• Finnish: lumo (fi), lumovoima (something); loitsu (fi) (spell)
• Galician: encantamento (gl) m, feitizo m, meigallo m
• Greek:

  Ancient: κήλημα n (kḗlēma)

• Hungarian: varázslat (hu), varázs (hu), bűbáj (hu)
• Irish: draíocht f
• Japanese: 魔法 (ja) (まほう, mahō)
• Middle English: enchauntement
• Portuguese: encantamento (pt) m
• Romanian: farmec (ro) n, magie (ro) f, vrajă (ro) f
• Russian: ма́гия (ru) f (mágija), волшебство́ (ru) n (volšebstvó), колдовство́ (ru) n (koldovstvó)
• Swedish: förtrollning (sv) c
• Turkish: büyü (tr), büyülem