sorcery means magical power; the use of witchcraft or magic arts. It carries an Arena rating of 1616, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, sorcery ranks #782 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #1,579 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,620 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #2,399 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words.
sorcery is pronounced /ˈsɔɹ.sə.ɹi/.
Why “sorcery” is a great word
The learned art of using magic, especially of a dark and manipulative kind, to compel spirits or alter the threads of fate. From Middle English sorcery, borrowed from Middle French sorcerie, ultimately derived from Latin sors ('fate, lot'), from Proto-Indo-European *ser- ('to bind'). Unlike witchcraft, which often conjures the image of a solitary practitioner with an innate, sometimes diabolical, gift, or thaumaturgy, which implies a benevolent spectacle of wonders, sorcery is the deliberate, grim craft of bending circumstance itself. It is the precise arrangement of bones on velvet to summon what should not be summoned, the whispered syllable that bends another's will, and the mirror that shows not your face but the hour of your death—the cold, intellectual pursuit of power over the chaos of life, a reminder that the deepest human art is not creation, but the binding of fate.
Etymology
From Middle English sorcery, borrowed from Middle French sorcerie, ultimately derived from Latin sors (“fate”), from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind”). Cognate with serō, seriēs, sermō. Compare also French sorcier.
noun
- Magical power; the use of witchcraft or magic arts.e.g.“The tale is full of magic and sorcery.”
- Black magic.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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