prestidigitator
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Explanation
If you hire a professional prestidigitator for your little brother's birthday party, you'll get a performer who uses tricks and sleight-of-hand to entertain the crowd. The noun prestidigitator is just a fancy way of saying "magician." You might see a prestidigitator at a party or on a street corner, pulling quarters out of people's ears and turning rabbits into bouquets of flowers. The noun prestidigitation is another name for the quick hand movements and secret techniques of an illusionist. Both words come from the Latin word for "juggler," præstigiator.
Vocabulary lists containing prestidigitator
The Jungle
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Words with 15 or More Letters, List 5
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Magical Vocabulary
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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.
Perfect for the kitchen magician or dinner-party prestidigitator on your holiday gift list.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 3, 2024
This hefty essay collection showcases Cohen’s skill as a verbal prestidigitator on subjects ranging from Barnum and Trump to the Holocaust writer A. G. Adler.
From New York Times • Oct. 11, 2018
After Seve Ballesteros chipped in at the second hole, Enberg said, ‘Ballesteros, the prestidigitator from Pedrena.’
From Golf Digest • Dec. 22, 2017
In Merchants of Doubt, close-up prestidigitator extraordinaire Jamy Ian Swiss offers an answer: “Once revealed, never concealed.”
From Scientific American • Mar. 10, 2015
The prestidigitator does his tricks in order to sidetrack our attention, but he succeeds in making us believe that we see or do not see whatever he wishes.
From Psychotherapy by Münsterberg, Hugo
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.
