Voldemort

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An evil, harmful, or widely feared person or thing.
verb
  1. To avoid naming someone or something directly; to use circumlocution.

Pronunciation

/ˈvəʊldəˌmɔː(t)/ /ˈvoʊldəˌmɔɹ(t)/

Word forms

Voldemort Voldemorts Voldemorting Voldemorted

Etymology

After the evil wizard Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter, coined by author J. K. Rowling as a compound of French vol de mort (“a flight or theft from death”). Voldemort's birth name is Tom Marvolo Riddle; an anagram of it is "I am Lord Voldemort". The verb sense comes from the fact that in the story, many characters refuse to call Voldemort by his proper name, calling him euphemisms such as "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" or "You-Know-Who". Also, Voldemort puts a spell on his own name that alerts him when others speak it.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.