witch doctor
/ˈwɪtʃ ˌdɑktɚ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.05 in modern English
22
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A person (often male) who is believed to ward off witchcraft and heal through magical powers; a shaman.
noun
A dragonfly.
Example Sentences
- "[T]he ſaid Dorothy Durent, having been with a Witch-Doctor, acknowledges upon Oath, that by his Advice, ſhe hang'd up her Child's Blanket in the Chimney, found a Toad in it at Night, had put it into the Fire, and held it there tho' it made a great and horrible Noiſe, and flaſht like Gunpowder, and went off like a Piſtol, and then became inviſible, and that by this the Priſoner was ſcorch'd and burn'd lamentably."
- "Some people are so foolish as to go to a witch-doctor when they have Cows in this complaint [prematurely parting with their unborn calves]:—they give him some money, and he tells them some frivolous tale, such as that some person that wishes them bad luck, or looks upon them with an evil eye, [...]"
- "At that consultation, according to the habit of a witch-doctor, he divined and announced the occasion of their attendance, and indicated the complainant, Mdungazwe, as the wizard who had caused Ranise to suffer."
- "I told the witch doctor I was in love with you / And then the witch doctor he told me what to do"
- "Review of the literature cited in the bibliography of the present paper left this author with the impression that there is indeed a very widespread institution variously labelled by Western observers with epithets such as medicine-man, shaman, witch-doctor, native healer, or with indigenous terms such as angakok (Eskimo), or mganga (Swahili)."
- "In much of popular Western literature, the non-Western professional who attends to the relief of distress and alleviation of anxiety in his society is known by many names, none of them exactly respectful. He is a medicine man or a witch doctor, native healer or voodoo sorcerer—the "quack," so to speak, never the "doctor.""
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈwɪtʃ ˌdɑktɚ/
- British English: /ˈwɪtʃ ˌdɒktə/
Inflected Forms
Phrases
witch-doctoring
witch-doctory
witch-doctress