juju
Americannoun
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an object venerated superstitiously and used as a fetish or amulet in West African spiritual practices.
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the magical power attributed to such an object.
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Informal. an emanating aura or supernatural force: The team chalked up that string of unfortunate losses to bad juju on the road.
The charismatic lead singer has serious juju.
The team chalked up that string of unfortunate losses to bad juju on the road.
noun
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an object superstitiously revered by certain W African peoples and used as a charm or fetish
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the power associated with a juju
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a taboo effected by a juju
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any process in which a mystery is exploited to confuse people
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of juju
First recorded in 1890–95; allegedly from Hausa jūjū “fetish,” from French joujou “toy, plaything”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
All will be forgiven if Allen delivers, reverses all those decades of bad juju and hoists the Lombardi hood ornament into the sky.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
But no matter how much juju we employ, we keep missing—just high, just low, just right.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2025
It has a whole lot of bad juju associated with stealing it from a community nonprofit.
From Seattle Times ● May 26, 2024
She joked during our Zoom call that I had good juju.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2023
But then his gaze shifts, and his smile melts off like the bad juju has leapt onto his face.
From "Odd One Out" by Nic Stone
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
