NECROMANCY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does necromancy mean? 

• NECROMANCY (noun)
  The noun NECROMANCY has 2 senses:

1. the belief in magical spells that harness occult forces or evil spirits to produce unnatural effects in the world

2. conjuring up the dead, especially for prophesying

  Familiarity information: NECROMANCY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NECROMANCY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The belief in magical spells that harness occult forces or evil spirits to produce unnatural effects in the world

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

black art; black magic; necromancy; sorcery

Hypernyms ("necromancy" is a kind of...):

magic; thaumaturgy (any art that invokes supernatural powers)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "necromancy"):

witchcraft; witchery (the art of sorcery)

bewitchment; enchantment (a magical spell)

demonism; diabolism; Satanism (a belief in and reverence for devils (especially Satan))

obiism (belief in a kind of sorcery that originated in Africa and is practiced in the West Indies)

Derivation:

necromancer (one who practices magic or sorcery)

necromantic; necromantical (relating to or associated with necromancy)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Conjuring up the dead, especially for prophesying

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("necromancy" is a kind of...):

divination; foretelling; fortune telling; soothsaying (the art or gift of prophecy (or the pretense of prophecy) by supernatural means)

Derivation:

necromancer (one who practices divination by conjuring up the dead)

necromantic (given to or produced by or used in the art of conjuring up the dead)

necromantical (relating to or associated with necromancy)

 Context examples 

I then absolutely concluded, that all these appearances could be nothing else but necromancy and magic.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

This vampire which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men; he is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages; he have still the aids of necromancy, which is, as his etymology imply, the divination by the dead, and all the dead that he can come nigh to are for him at command; he is brute, and more than brute; he is devil in callous, and the heart of him is not; he can, within limitations, appear at will when, and where, and in any of the forms that are to him; he can, within his range, direct the elements; the storm, the fog, the thunder; he can command all the meaner things: the rat, and the owl, and the bat—the moth, and the fox, and the wolf; he can grow and become small; and he can at times vanish and come unknown.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

By his skill in necromancy he has a power of calling whom he pleases from the dead, and commanding their service for twenty-four hours, but no longer; nor can he call the same persons up again in less than three months, except upon very extraordinary occasions.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)