magic word

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌmædʒɪk ˈwɜːd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌmædʒɪk ˈwɝd/

Noun

magic word (plural magic words)

1. Any word that has a magical effect when uttered.
2. (in teaching or training polite words to children) One of the words please, thank you, or hello.

   If you learn to use magic words when you are little, it would be easy in your adulthood.

   What's the magic word?

3. (by extension) Any word that is considered very significant in a certain situation or context.

   When someone offers you drugs, the magic word is no.

4. (computing) A string of text having some special function or purpose.

   Coordinate term: magic number

   One of the magic words used in the MediaWiki software is __NOTOC__, which hides the table of contents that would normally be on the page.

   • 2021, Clinton L. Jeffery, Build Your Own Programming Language, page 273:

     The header consists of an optional self-execution script, a magic word, a version number, and the word offset of the first instruction, relative to the magic word.

Synonyms

• magical word

Translations

word with magical effect

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 咒語 / 咒语 (zh) (zhòuyǔ), 咒文 (zh) (zhòuwén)

• Czech: kouzelná formule f
• Danish: trylleformel c, hekseformular c, trylleord n
• Dutch: toverwoord (nl) n
• Esperanto: magia formulo
• Estonian: võlusõna
• Finnish: taikasana (fi)
• French: formule magique (fr) f, incantation (fr) f
• Georgian: ჯადოსნური სიტყვა (ǯadosnuri siṭq̇va)
• German: Zauberspruch (de) m, Zauberwort (de) n, Zauberformel (de) f
• Greek: μαγική λέξη f (magikí léxi), μαγική φόρμουλα f (magikí fórmoula)
• Hungarian: varázsige (hu), varázsszó (hu)
• Italian: formula magica f
• Japanese: 呪文 (ja) (じゅもん, jumon), おまじない (omajinai)
• Korean: 마법의 말 (mabeob-ui mal), 마법의 단어 (mabeob-ui daneo)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: trollformel m, hekseformular m

• Old English: ġealdorword n
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: وِرْد (verd)

• Polish: magiczne słowo n
• Portuguese: palavra mágica f, fórmula mágica f
• Russian: волше́бное сло́во n (volšébnoje slóvo), заклина́ние (ru) n (zaklinánije)
• Spanish: palabra mágica f, fórmula mágica f
• Swedish: magiskt ord n, trollformel (sv) c

one of the words please, thank you, or hello

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 禮貌用語 / 礼貌用语 (lai⁵ maau⁶ jung⁶ jyu⁵)

• Czech: kouzelné slovíčko n
• Finnish: not used in Finnish (instead, the question is mitä sanotaan? (“what does one say?”))
• French: mot magique (fr) m
• German: Zauberwort (de) n
• Italian: parola magica f, parolina magica f
• Polish: magiczne słowo n
• Portuguese: palavra mágica f, palavrinha mágica f
• Russian: волше́бное сло́во n (volšébnoje slóvo)
• Spanish: palabra mágica f

References

• “magic word, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.