"horcrux" meaning in English

See horcrux in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: horcruxes [plural]
Etymology: Coined by author J. K. Rowling through the random "transposition of syllables," though fans have pointed to the possible influence of Middle English hore (“iniquity, evil, sin”) and English crux (“the central or essential part”). The term first appears in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005). Etymology templates: {{coin|en|J. K. Rowling|nat=|occ=author}} Coined by author J. K. Rowling Head templates: {{en-noun}} horcrux (plural horcruxes)
  1. In the Harry Potter series, an object in which a wizard has concealed a part of their soul through magic, rendering them immortal until the object is irreparably damaged or destroyed. Categories (topical): Harry Potter, Murder Synonyms: phylactery Translations (item in Harry Potter books): viteál [masculine] (Czech), gruzielement [neuter] (Dutch), hirnyrkki (Finnish), horkruks [masculine] (Polish), крестра́ж (krestráž) [masculine] (Russian), hortkuluk (Turkish), trường sinh linh giá (Vietnamese)
    Sense id: en-horcrux-en-noun-8glPrC7w Disambiguation of Harry Potter: 96 4 Disambiguation of Murder: 70 30 Categories (other): Terms with Czech translations, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with Polish translations, Terms with Turkish translations, Terms with Vietnamese translations, Immortality Disambiguation of Terms with Czech translations: 69 31 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 62 38 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 61 39 Disambiguation of Terms with Turkish translations: 66 34 Disambiguation of Terms with Vietnamese translations: 67 33 Disambiguation of Immortality: 91 9 Disambiguation of 'item in Harry Potter books': 96 4
  2. (by extension) Something in which one has invested a part of one's self; an object which allows for the preservation of memory, culture, etc. Tags: broadly
    Sense id: en-horcrux-en-noun-D1VcUndi Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Dutch translations, Terms with Russian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 36 64 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 41 59 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 36 64 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 30 70 Disambiguation of Terms with Dutch translations: 36 64 Disambiguation of Terms with Russian translations: 35 65
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: Horcrux

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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  "word": "horcrux"
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Download raw JSONL data for horcrux meaning in English (5.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (f889f65 and 8fbd9e8). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.