Top 57 Words Associated With Witches (Curated & Ranked) (2024)

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Lindsey Desmet

Updated December 19th, 2023

Stories of witches have been around throughout history.

In popular culture, they’ve been portrayed as everything from evil, green-faced women (“The Wizard of Oz”) to suburban housewives (“Bewitched”) to teens with special powers (“The Craft”).

Early witches were often fearfully regarded as practitioners of “dark” magic, but many were simply natural healers or had spiritual beliefs outside of Christianity.[1]

Such misunderstandings led to witch hunts like Massachusetts’ Salem witch trials in the 1690s.[2]

Today, witches are still somewhat misunderstood but have found less fear and more acceptance over time.

Many young people associate witchcraft with free thought and a connection with nature.[3]

Below, we list the words associated with witches, including explanations. Scroll past the list to find out about famous witches in popular culture.

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Words Associated With Witches

  1. Occult

    supernatural, mystical, and magical beliefs, practices, or phenomena

  2. Witchcraft

    practicing magic and/or pagan traditions

  3. Coven

    a gathering of witches

  4. Voodoo

    religion combining elements of Roman Catholic ritual and African religious rites; often involves sorcery or spiritual possession

  5. Hecate

    Greek goddess presiding over magic and spells

  6. Wicca

    religious practice inspired by pre-Christian traditions; often involves witchcraft and a reverence for nature

  7. Warlock

    a man who practices witchcraft

  8. Witch-hunt

    searching for and persecuting witches

  9. Talisman

    an object that brings good luck; often a ring or stone with an inscription

  10. Sabbat

    meeting of witches

  11. High Priestess

    leader of a coven

  12. Spell

    words used to bring about magic

  13. Hoodoo

    a religion primarily found in parts of the Caribbean and the southern U.S. that involves sorcery and spirit possession

  14. Alchemy

    transforming, creating, or combining materials; a medieval precursor to the science of chemistry

  15. Cauldron

    large iron kettle used for preparing brews, potions, and Sabbat feasts

  16. Witching hour

    a magical time when the barrier between worlds opens, allowing mystical beings to cross; often thought to be between midnight and 3 a.m.

  17. Fairy cross

    a stone charm that wards off bad luck

  18. Salem

    a village in colonial Massachusetts where thirty people were found guilty of witchcraft in the late 1600s

  19. Familiar

    a “familiar spirit,” or animal connected that will obey a witch

  20. Altar

    a table, bench, stump, or rock where a witch places her materials while practicing her craft

  21. Witch trials

    an investigation to uncover the practice of witchcraft and punish its practitioners

  22. Pagan

    someone who holds religious beliefs outside of the major world religions

  23. Magic

    influencing events through supernatural forces and practices

  24. Sorcery

    the use of magic

  25. Conjuring

    conducting rituals to call upon spirits

  26. Samhain

    festival marking the beginning of winter

  27. Amulet

    an ornament or piece of jewelry that gives protection

  28. Mascot

    something that brings good luck

  29. Wizard

    a man with magic powers

  30. Curse

    invoking supernatural powers to inflict punishment

  31. Incantation

    words spoken as a magic spell or charm

  32. Divination

    seeking knowledge of the future through supernatural forces

  33. Foretelling

    predicting a future event

  34. Hex

    a magic spell or curse

  35. Conjurer

    a person who conjures

  36. Bruja

    Spanish word for a witch or a woman with knowledge of folk magic

  37. Black magic

    invoking evil spirits or using magic for malicious purposes

  38. Incantor

    someone who performs incantations

  39. Scrying

    using a crystal ball or other reflective object to see the future

  40. Circe

    an enchantress in Greek mythology

  41. Broomstick

    household tool for sweeping that a witch can use to fly to Sabbat

  42. Sorcerer

    a person who claims to have magic powers

  43. Enchant

    to put someone under a spell

  44. Walpurgis night

    a meeting of witches on May Day’s eve in German folklore

  45. Charm bag

    a drawstring pouch worn around the neck or waist that contains herbs, gemstones, or other objects

  46. Supernatural

    forces beyond scientific understanding or the known laws of nature

  47. Handfasting

    making a pledge by shaking or joining hands; sometimes used in place of “wedding” or “marriage”

  48. Wand

    branches cut from sacred trees and used in some rituals or practices by witches

  49. Hocus-pocus

    words used by a person performing magic

  50. Graeae

    three “grey witch” sisters in Greek mythology

  51. Beltane

    ancient May Day festival celebrating the springtime

  52. Craft

    a shortening of “witchcraft”; also the name of an iconic 1996 film about teenage witches

  53. Jinx

    a spell to bring bad luck upon others

  54. Ducking

    the practice of tying a person’s hands and feet and throwing them into a pond or river to find out whether they were a witch

  55. Necromancy

    communication with the dead through sorcery

  56. Enchantress

    a woman using magic or sorcery to put someone or something under a spell

  57. Bewitch

    to cast a spell over someone

Famous Witches in Popular Culture

Interested to know more about how popular culture has portrayed witches over time?

We’ve gathered some of the most famous examples below!

  • “American Horror Story: Coven” is a TV series following a group of witches in New Orleans, also featuring flashbacks to the Salem witch trials.
  • “Charmed” (premiering in 1998 and rebooted in 2018) is a TV series following three sisters — Prue, Piper, and Phoebe — who are powerful good witches.
  • “The Chronicles of Narnia” features several witch characters, including Jadis (the White Witch) as the antagonist of “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.”
  • The 1996 film “The Craft” follows four high school outcasts who become interested in witchcraft.
  • Hermione Granger is one of many witches-in-training at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in “Harry Potter.” She’s known for her quick wit and encyclopedic knowledge of magic.
  • “Hocus Pocus” is an iconic 1993 Disney film following the Sanderson sisters, three witches accidentally resurrected by a teenager in Salem on Halloween night.
  • The British fantasy drama “Merlin” follows the warlock of the same name from Arthurian legend.
  • “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” is a comic book series following a young half-witch, Sabrina Spellman, who lives with her witch aunts, Hilda and Zelda Spellman. It’s been adapted into several animated series, films, and live-action TV series.
  • L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” features the good witches of the north and south and the wicked witches of the east and west. While the Wicked Witch of the West was unnamed in the original book, she was later given the name Elphaba and a rich backstory in “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Maguire.
Top 57 Words Associated With Witches (Curated & Ranked) (2024)
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