glamour

or glam·or

[glam-er]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR glamour ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

the quality of fascinating, alluring, or attracting, especially by a combination of charm and good looks.

excitement, adventure, and unusual activity: the glamour of being an explorer.

magic or enchantment; spell; witchery.

adjective

suggestive or full of glamour; glamorous: a glamour job in television; glamour stocks.

Origin of glamour

1710–20; earlier glammar, dissimilated variant of grammar in sense of occult learning

Usage note

See -or¹.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for glamour

beauty, color, charisma, allure, charm, prestige, enchantment, allurement, fascination, romance, attraction, magnetism, interest, appeal, razzle-dazzle, bewitchment, ravishment

Examples from the Web for glamour

Contemporary Examples of glamour

I said that mixture of glamour and vulnerability is potent, especially if you can sense the vulnerability.
Daphne Merkin on Lena Dunham, Book Criticism, and Self-Examination
Mindy Farabee
December 26, 2014
If confidence and strength were instilled in her at a young age, glamour was something she pursued.
Diane von Furstenberg: How I Learned to Love My Wrap Dress
Lizzie Crocker
October 27, 2014
The glamour of the seaside resort has long since been eclipsed by spectacular violence.
Trading Dime Bags for Salvador Dali
Jason McGahan
October 19, 2014
Some on the Internet took umbrage with your comments to Glamour that your appearance has “never been my moneymaker.”
Anna Kendrick on ‘Pitch Perfect 2,’ Drunken Horror Stories, and Singin’ Pharrell
Marlow Stern
July 24, 2014
Her Facebook page describes her as “an aspiring model looking to break into the world of glamour modelling.”
When Fame Is the Reason for Abortion, Does That Make It Wrong?
Tauriq Moosa
April 30, 2014

Historical Examples of glamour

But—if indeed, you are dazzled by the glamour of a title—do not be too confident of his fealty.
The Bacillus of Beauty
Harriet Stark
But what did anything matter, if the glamour of the Nile was in our blood?
It Happened in Egypt
C. N. Williamson
Yet the fascinating possibility is like a taste for drink, or the glamour of cards.
Meadow Grass
Alice Brown
There is a mystery at the heart of the book that throws over it the glamour of romance.
The Harbor
Ernest Poole
But the 'glamour' of the moon is not a mere poetic invention or a lover's fancy.
Storyology
Benjamin Taylor

British Dictionary definitions for glamour

glamour

sometimes US glamor

noun

charm and allure; fascination

fascinating or voluptuous beauty, often dependent on artifice
(as modifier)a glamour girl

archaic a magic spell; charm

Word Origin for glamour

C18: Scottish variant of grammar (hence a magic spell, because occult practices were popularly associated with learning)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for glamour

1720, Scottish, "magic, enchantment" (especially in phrase to cast the glamor), a variant of Scottish gramarye "magic, enchantment, spell," alteration of English grammar (q.v.) with a medieval sense of "any sort of scholarship, especially occult learning." Popularized by the writings of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Sense of "magical beauty, alluring charm" first recorded 1840.

1814, from glamour (n.). Related: Glamoured; glamouring.