necromancer
Americannoun
-
necromancers
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of necromancer
First recorded in 1540–50; equivalent to necromanc(y) ( def. ) + -er 1 ( def. )
Explanation
Necromancer is a fancy word for a magician. A necromancer might mix up a love potion or cast a spell on your mortal enemy. You can use the noun necromancer when you talk about a sorcerer of any kind, but it most often refers to someone who can communicate with the dead. Your cousin who has good luck contacting spirits through her Ouija board might be an aspiring necromancer. For many people, the word has a dark, scary connotation, or a connection with black magic. The Greek word at the root of necromancer is nekromanteia, which joins nekros , "dead body," with manteia, "divination."
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.
See Examples For:
But it was the ongoing appearances of Haley Joel Osment as Topher and Benedict Wong as Wallace the necromancer that were among my favorites.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2024
So Nandor reverses his vampirism by staking Derek, who Laszlo pays the local necromancer to revive as a zombie.
From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2023
The fantasy game gives players five character classes - barbarian, rogue, sorcerer, necromancer, and druid - each with different abilities.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2023
Now D&D appears to have been resurrected as if by a 17th-level necromancer.
From New York Times ● Nov. 13, 2019
He was only a man who had meant well, who had been spurred along that course of thinking by an eccentric necromancer with a weakness for humanity.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Wearing sweatshirts and mom jeans, they look more like a focus group on suburban Costco shoppers than a circle of aspiring necromancers.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 10, 2018
If Ben Mezrich’s “Woolly” is to be believed, mammoths may be returning someday soon to a tundra near you, resurrected by the necromancers of synthetic biology.
From New York Times ● Dec. 27, 2017
Early records of Haitian zombies described them as pliant laborers, summoned from their graves by greedy necromancers to work in sugar-cane fields at night.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 27, 2016
Here stormed the Washington Capitals, necromancers in red sweaters, raising themselves from the dead.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 28, 2015
I then regretted what I had done, and strove to conceal my uneasiness by consulting the necromancers on my own account.
From A Lady's Captivity among Chinese Pirates in the Chinese Seas by Fanny Loviot
Definitions 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.
