Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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noun
Originally, enchantment; magic charm; especially, the effect of a spell that causes one to see objects in a form that differs from reality, typically to make filthy, ugly, or repulsive things seem beauteous.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Alluring beauty or charm (often with sex appeal).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Any excitement, appeal, or attractiveness associated with a person, place, or thing; that which makes something appealing.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Any artificial interest in, or association with, objects, or persons, through which they appear delusively magnified or glorified.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A kind of haze in the air, causing things to appear different from what they really are.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
An item, motif, person, image that by association improves appearance.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A beautiful woman.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To enchant; to bewitch.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: beglammer, englamour, witch, bechat, becry, bespell, bewitch, conjure, enchant, ensorcell, enspell, forspeak, glamour, hex, jinx, maleficiate, mojo, spell, spellbind, spellcast
Antonyms: none provided
noun
alluring beauty or charm (often with sex-appeal)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: glamor
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: beauty
verb
cast a spell over someone or something; put a hex on someone or something
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: hex, bewitch, witch, enchant, jinx
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: charm, becharm
Narrower terms: voodoo, spell
History
Borrowed from Scots glamour (“magic”), alteration of Middle English gramere (“grammar”), from Old French gramaire. Doublet of glamoury, gramarye, grammar, and grimoire. A connection has also been suggested with Old Norse glámr (“the moon", also "the name of a ghost”, poetic byname, literally “the pale one”) and glámsýni (“glamour, illusion”, literally “glam-sight”). From Grettir's Saga aka Grettis Saga, one of the Sagas of Icelanders, after the hero has been cursed by Glam, aka Glamr: "...he was become so fearsome a man in the dark, that he durst go nowhither alone after nightfall, for then he seemed to see all kinds of horrors. And that has fallen since into a proverb, that "Glam lends eyes", or gives Glamsight to those who see things nowise as they are."
Across languages
25 source translations are retained for this English entry.
