1
as in spell
a spoken word or set of words believed to have magic power
originally, an abracadabra was a cryptogram of the word "abracadabra" that was repeated in diminishing form until it disappeared entirely—supposedly just like the targeted evil or misfortune
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
as in nonsense
unintelligible or meaningless talk
after some abracadabra the spiritualist announced that we had made contact with "the other side"
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of abracadabra
What could be more fun than some abracadabra and cathartic wealth redistribution?
—
Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 13 Nov. 2025
There is nothing to choose between them, but there was a consistency, clinical edge and an abracadabra touch that made this performance the best Alcaraz has played in a major final, barring that 2024 demolition of Novak Djokovic on Centre Court.
—Tim Ellis, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
That’s seven steps to make abracadabra, whose molecular assembly number is thus seven.
—Sarah Scoles, Scientific American, 13 Jan. 2023
Make the Boston Celtics vanish on abracadabra?
—Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY, 18 May 2022
And there’s an abracadabra quality of pulling a bed out nowhere.
—Christine Lennon, Sunset Magazine, 11 Feb. 2022
But Trump’s Hollywood gambits well surpass that obvious bit of abracadabra.
—Steven Zeitchik, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
His utilization of terms like irreducible complexity is about as substantive as chanting abracadabra, but probably just as effective in convincing fellow travelers already sympathetic to his position as shamans were in the days of yore.
—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 5 Sep. 2011
Recent Examples of Synonyms for abracadabra
Noun
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The archer is known to be a magical being that throws zingers, or in this case, spells, at those who frustrate their peace.—
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The incoming generation of designs should be a step closer to the cars used between 2014 and 2021 — a spell in which Hamilton won six of his world titles.—
Noun
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That rule is nonsense — especially with two applicants who pretty clearly spend most of their time in Tallahassee, and two who work in Lakeland.—
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But the residency rule is nonsense.—
Noun
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Fireflies blipped and burned out, and the cicadas joined in an incantation that crescendoed into an ancient whirr.—
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When paired with the Grimmerie translation key available on the film's Universal site, the spell is revealed to be an incantation for soothing and mending pain and fear.—
Noun
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Now the babble about them is back.—
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Mesopotamian corpses, stirred by the babble of trade, wander the halls wrapped in shrouds of extravagant malice.—
Noun
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Trump prattles on about the economy while the actors freeze behind him in their ancient Galilee garb.—
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She was getting winded on our walk, and her prattle was broken up by heavy breaths.—
Noun
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With its tongue way up its cheek, this zero-fat survival thriller is not bulked up with gratuitous sociological mumbo jumbo or layered with hidden meanings.—
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Gavras presents this mystic mumbo jumbo in such a way that we are meant to question whether Joan could be right.—
Noun
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Some children clustered there to jabber and run madly about, while others just wanted attention and knew how to get it.—
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And given that these are not professional actors, or even (in most cases) people who aspire to be, LaBeouf’s words to them, full of deadly serious jabber about empathy and ego, are pumped up with an intensity that feels overdone and inappropriate.—
Noun
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Vril and Agartha have thrived in part because of the way the editors mix brainrot and bigotry, disguising their ideological assaults in the fried fog of GifTok rap gibberish.—
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The strategy always involves the same ingredients: The message, called the plaintext, gets distorted (the encryption) so that anybody who intercepts it sees only garbled gibberish (the ciphertext).—
Cite this Entry
“Abracadabra.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/abracadabra. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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