ENCHANTMENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does enchantment mean? 

• ENCHANTMENT (noun)
  The noun ENCHANTMENT has 3 senses:

1. a feeling of great liking for something wonderful and unusual

2. a psychological state induced by (or as if induced by) a magical incantation

3. a magical spell

  Familiarity information: ENCHANTMENT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENCHANTMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A feeling of great liking for something wonderful and unusual

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

captivation; enchantment; enthrallment; fascination

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

liking (a feeling of pleasure and enjoyment)

Derivation:

enchant (attract; cause to be enamored)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A psychological state induced by (or as if induced by) a magical incantation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

enchantment; spell; trance

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

mental condition; mental state; psychological condition; psychological state ((psychology) a mental condition in which the qualities of a state are relatively constant even though the state itself may be dynamic)

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

possession (being controlled by passion or the supernatural)

captivation; fascination (the state of being intensely interested (as by awe or terror))

Derivation:

enchant (cast a spell over someone or something; put a hex on someone or something)

enchant (hold spellbound)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A magical spell

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

bewitchment; enchantment

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

black art; black magic; necromancy; sorcery (the belief in magical spells that harness occult forces or evil spirits to produce unnatural effects in the world)

Derivation:

enchant (cast a spell over someone or something; put a hex on someone or something)

enchant (hold spellbound)

 Context examples 

And there is enchantment in the very hour I am now spending with you.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There was an ease in his manner—a gay and light manner it was, but not swaggering—which I still believe to have borne a kind of enchantment with it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“Alas!” said she to herself, “was I not once set free? Why then does this enchantment still seem to bind me?”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

He composed heroic songs and began to write many a tale of enchantment and knightly adventure.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The colour went from their six faces like enchantment; some leaped to their feet, some clawed hold of others; Morgan grovelled on the ground.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The Sun will be aligned with Neptune, which is known to spread enchantment.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

It had been successful, for at three-and-twenty, blighted affections find a balm in friendly society, and young nerves will thrill, young blood dance, and healthy young spirits rise, when subjected to the enchantment of beauty, light, music, and motion.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Your spell of enchantment may temporarily be interrupted with the appearance of the January 24 new moon in Aquarius, which will likely create a need to go into action at the office.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

He went up to the youth, embraced him and said: “I am Iron Hans, and was by enchantment a wild man, but you have set me free; all the treasures which I possess, shall be your property.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

To hear the wind getting up out at sea, to know that the fog was creeping over the desolate flat outside, and to look at the fire, and think that there was no house near but this one, and this one a boat, was like enchantment.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)