Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The power or quality of pleasing or delighting; attractiveness: a breezy tropical setting of great charm.
- n. A particular quality that attracts; a delightful characteristic: A mischievous grin was among the child's many charms.
- n. A small ornament, such as one worn on a bracelet.
- n. An item worn for its supposed magical benefit, as in warding off evil; an amulet.
- n. An action or formula thought to have magical power.
- n. The chanting of a magic word or verse; incantation.
- n. Physics A quantum property of the charm quark whose conservation explains the absence of certain strange-particle decay modes and that accounts for the longevity of the J particle.
- v. To attract or delight greatly: the simple elegance of the meal charmed the guests.
- v. To induce by using strong personal attractiveness: charmed the guard into admitting them without invitations.
- v. To cast or seem to cast a spell on; bewitch.
- v. To be alluring or pleasing.
- v. To function as an amulet or charm.
- v. To use magic spells.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A melody; a song.
- n. Anything believed to possess some occult or supernatural power, such as an amulet, a spell, or some mystic observance or act.
- n. Hence A trinket, such as a locket, seal, etc., worn especially on a watch-guard.
- n. An irresistible power to please and attract, or something which possesses this power; fascination; allurement; attraction.
- n. Synonyms Spell, enchantment, witchery, magic.
- To subdue, control, or bind, as if by incantation or magical influence; soothe, allay, or appease.
- To fortify or make invulnerable with charms.
- To give exquisite pleasure to; fascinate; enchant.
- To affect by or as if by magic or supernatural influences: as, to charm a serpent out of his hole or into a stupor; to charm away one's grief; to charm the wind into silence.
- To play upon; produce musical sounds from.
- = Syn. 1, 2, and Fascinate, etc. (see enchant), delight, transport, bewitch, ravish, enrapture, captivate.
- To produce the effect of a charm; work with magic power; act as a charm or spell.
- To give delight; be highly pleasing: as, a melody that could charm more than any other.
- To give forth musical sounds.
- n. The confused low murmuring of a flock of birds; chirm.
- n. In hawking, a company: said of goldfinches.
Wiktionary
- n. An object, act or words believed to have magic power.
- n. The ability to persuade, delight or arouse admiration; often constructed in the plural.
- n. A quantum number of hadrons determined by the quantity of charm quarks & antiquarks.
- n. A small trinket on a bracelet or chain, etc.
- n. The mixed sound of many voices, especially of birds or children.
- n. A flock, group (especially of finches).
- v. To seduce, persuade or fascinate someone or something.
- v. To use a magical charm upon someone/something.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A melody; a song.
- n. A word or combination of words sung or spoken in the practice of magic; a magical combination of words, characters, etc.; an incantation.
- n. That which exerts an irresistible power to please and attract; that which fascinates; any alluring quality.
- n. Anything worn for its supposed efficacy to the wearer in averting ill or securing good fortune.
- n. Any small decorative object worn on the person, as a seal, a key, a silver whistle, or the like. Bunches of
charms are often worn at the watch chain. - n. a property of certain quarks which may take the value of +1, -1 or 0.
- v. To make music upon; to tune.
- v. To subdue, control, or summon by incantation or supernatural influence; to affect by magic.
- v. To subdue or overcome by some secret power, or by that which gives pleasure; to allay; to soothe.
- v. To attract irresistibly; to delight exceedingly; to enchant; to fascinate.
- v. To protect with, or make invulnerable by, spells, charms, or supernatural influences.
- v. To use magic arts or occult power; to make use of charms.
- v. To act as, or produce the effect of, a charm; to please greatly; to be fascinating.
- v. To make a musical sound.
WordNet 3.0
- n. something believed to bring good luck
- n. a verbal formula believed to have magical force
- v. protect through supernatural powers or charms
- v. induce into action by using one's charm
- v. attract; cause to be enamored
- n. (physics) one of the six flavors of quark
- v. control by magic spells, as by practicing witchcraft
- n. attractiveness that interests or pleases or stimulates
Etymologies
- Middle English charme, magic spell, from Old French, from Latin carmen, incantation; see kan- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“And no matter how odd my request seemed, * charm so Lupin can't read* I didn't tell him why I wanted one, just that I wanted one * ends charm* he let me have one!”
“It sent me to the hospital, got me addicted, and now i have to come back sometimes just to make sure im okay. * charm so gin can't read*They also suggested me to go into drug rehab, but I don't think i need it, really. * end charm*”
“That we broke up. * charm so nobody can read* you don't know how hard/weird that is to say. * end charm* but anyways, heres what it said.”
“WHATEVER!! hehe well I'm gunna * charm so ron can't read* PRETEND TO * end charm* sleep. .so bye! love you all ... some more then others ...”
“* charm so only people who know can read* I went to see Dr. Robinson again (ooc: that is if he's still around, jackie or hay, if hes not, let me know lol. thanks bunches) I can't believe that its almost been a year. my minds been elsewhere today*end charm** charm so only alyssa & em can read* Its almost been a year. god DAMNIT.”
“IV. xii.25 (227,3) this grave charm] I know not by what authority, nor for what reason, _this_ grave _charm_, which the first, the only original copy exhibits, has been through all the modern editors changed to _this_ gay _charm_.”
“Barbie has been around for 50 years; although she has never been given a decisive storyline for her life that would translate into a concrete idea for a movie (however cheesy it might wind up being) part of her charm is the fact that she has been and done everything.”
The Barbie movie: Plastic fantastic or dollpocalypse now? | EW.com
“And they had things like talking about the fact that Kerry -- John Kerry is trying to fill what they called the charm gap by picking John Edwards.”
“Strolling through the picture-gallery with an old friend, she who, though born to millions, kept fresh that perfume of womanliness which we call charm: "You look tired to-night," said he.”
“Her greatest charm was precisely what we call charm -- a sweetly willing, pliant disposition, an air of gay seriousness, such as a child has, and a mood which could run swiftly, at the touch on some secret spring, from the ripple of laughter to the urgency of tears.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘charm’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 624 more...
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Public List: Two by Fives
This is an experiment in public lists--something I've been thinking about for some time. The goal is to create a collection of short, powerful, evocative words.
This is an open list. A...icy, howl, hymn, thorn, fire, vile, mist, blunt, scum, dark, shot, gleam and 137 more...
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I am : mystified
As in, 'confused' and 'entranced' both.
mystify, entrance, enrapture, puzzle, ensorcell, confound, mesmerize, confuse, bewitch, captivate, beguile, fascinate and 11 more...
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coax
cajole, blandish, inveigle, palaver, croodle, woo, charm, sweet-talk, tweedle, persuade, gentle, jolly and 5 more...
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Magicial Verbs
enchant, curse, hex, jinx, cast, chant, summon, charm, bewitch

treeseed a company of birds, a flock, expression used by Milton
_A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs and Ancient Customs, by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillips, 1881 Feb 26, 2008
mager theres a word for a shy player... charming Dec 20, 2006