See witching hour in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"etymology_text": "From witching (“of or pertaining to witchcraft or sorcery, or to witches or sorcerers”, adjective) + hour. Sense 1 (“midnight”) was popularized by the reference to the “witching time of night” in the play Hamlet (written c. 1599–1602; published 1603) by the English playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616): see the quotation.",
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"text": "I wanted to get home before the witching hour.",
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"ref": "[c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], signature [H4], verso:",
"text": "Tis novv the very vvitching time of night, / VVhen Churchyards yavvne, and hell it ſelfe breakes out / Contagion to this vvorld: […]",
"type": "quote"
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{
"ref": "1811, Walter Scott, “John Leyden, M.D.”, in The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., volume IV, Edinburgh: […] [Stevenson & Co. for] Robert Cadell; London: Houlston & Stoneman, published 1843, →OCLC, pages 174–175:",
"text": "A party of his friends had met in the evening to talk over his merits, and to drink, in Scottish phrase, his Bonallie. While, about the witching hour, they were crowning a solemn bumper to his health, a figure burst into the room, muffled in a seaman's cloak and travelling cap covered with snow, and distinguishable only by the sharpness and ardour of the tone with which he exclaimed, \"Dash it, boys, here I am again!\"",
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{
"ref": "1960 March, “Sleeping Cars to the West”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 173:",
"text": "[T]he Penzance train is shown as non-stop to Plymouth in the down direction, but in the up as being prepared to pick up sleeping car passengers at Newton Abbot, Exeter and Taunton (the two last-mentioned at the witching hours of 2.42 and 3.25 a.m.) and also to set down at Reading.",
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"ref": "1982 January 14, Roald Dahl, “The Witching Hour”, in The BFG, London: Jonathan Cape […], published 1985, →ISBN, page 10:",
"text": "Perhaps, she told herself, this was what they called the witching hour. The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world to themselves.",
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{
"ref": "2003 June 9, “The Gloaming (Softly Open Our Mouths in the Cold)”, in Hail to the Thief, performed by Radiohead, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.: Capitol Records, →OCLC:",
"text": "Genie let out of the bottle / It is now the witching hour / Murderers, you're murderers / We are not the same as you",
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"Often preceded by the: midnight, when witches and other supernatural beings were thought to be active, and to which bad luck was ascribed; also (generally), the middle of the night, when unfortunate things are thought more likely to occur; the dead of night."
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"(chiefly literary or poetic) Often preceded by the: midnight, when witches and other supernatural beings were thought to be active, and to which bad luck was ascribed; also (generally), the middle of the night, when unfortunate things are thought more likely to occur; the dead of night."
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"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"word": "ساعة السحر"
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"word": "tinggawas"
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"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
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"feminine"
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"word": "hodina duchů"
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{
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"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"word": "keskiyö"
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{
"_dis1": "61 25 10 4",
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"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "l’heure du crime"
},
{
"_dis1": "61 25 10 4",
"code": "de",
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"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "Geisterstunde"
},
{
"_dis1": "61 25 10 4",
"code": "it",
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"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "ora delle streghe"
},
{
"_dis1": "61 25 10 4",
"code": "it",
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"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
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],
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},
{
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"code": "mk",
"lang": "Macedonian",
"roman": "gluva doba",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "глува доба"
},
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"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
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{
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"_dis1": "61 25 10 4",
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"tags": [
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"_dis1": "61 25 10 4",
"code": "es",
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"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
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"word": "hora de las brujas"
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"_dis1": "61 25 10 4",
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"word": "spöktimme"
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"ref": "2022 October 17, Jenn Cox, “Age-by-age Guide to Surviving Witching Hour”, in Kim Shiffman, editor, Today’s Parent, Toronto, Ont.: St. Joseph Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-01-17:",
"text": "Witching hour: It just might be the most challenging time of the day. That window between dinner and bedtime where kids are wound up, parents want to wind down, and it feels like the longest hour or two ever. And although the term witching hour is most commonly applied to newborns and babies, kids of all ages seem to be extra sensitive at this time. Here are some ideas for getting through witching hour for kids of all ages.",
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"_dis1": "9 44 25 23",
"word": "evil hour"
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{
"_dis1": "9 44 25 23",
"word": "ungodly hour"
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{
"_dis1": "9 44 25 23",
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"word": "iltahuuto"
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{
"ref": "2008 July 22, Claudia Mair Burney, chapter 4, in The Exorsistah, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 42:",
"text": "\"Do you know what three a.m. is?\" […] \"It's called the witching hour. It's the reverse of the holy hour—three p.m.—when Jesus died on the cross.[…]\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2009 September 22, Rick Yancey, “The Devil’s Manger”, in The Monstrumologist, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster BFYR, →ISBN, page 349:",
"text": "The witching hour is three a.m., in mockery of the Trinity and a perversion of the hour of his death.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2020 April 27, Pamela Humphrey, “Momma at Costco (Wind Chime Breaks)”, in My Sister’s Walk with God: The True Stories of a Prophetic Intercessor, Murrells Inlet, S.C.: Covenant Books, →ISBN:",
"text": "By the way, the hour between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. is also known as the witching hour because it's thought that paranormal forces are at their strongest during that time.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The hour between 3:00 and 3:59 a.m., associated with demons."
],
"id": "en-witching_hour-en-noun-NFIdrzhn",
"links": [
[
"occult",
"occult"
],
[
"hour",
"hour"
],
[
"a.m.",
"a.m."
],
[
"associated",
"associate#Verb"
],
[
"demon",
"demon"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(occult, less common) The hour between 3:00 and 3:59 a.m., associated with demons."
],
"tags": [
"uncommon"
],
"topics": [
"human-sciences",
"mysticism",
"occult",
"philosophy",
"sciences"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "2 4 5 89",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "hour between 3:00 and 3:59 a.m., associated with demons",
"word": "suden hetki"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈwɪt͡ʃɪŋ ˌaʊə/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
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"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/71/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-witching_hour.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-witching_hour.wav.mp3",
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},
{
"ipa": "/ˈwɪt͡ʃɪŋ ˌaʊ(ə)ɹ/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "En-us-witching hour.oga",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1b/En-us-witching_hour.oga/En-us-witching_hour.oga.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/En-us-witching_hour.oga"
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"wikipedia": [
"Hamlet",
"William Shakespeare"
],
"word": "witching hour"
}
{
"categories": [
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"English compound terms",
"English countable nouns",
"English endocentric compounds",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Requests for gender in Arabic entries",
"Terms with Arabic translations",
"Terms with Cebuano translations",
"Terms with Czech translations",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with French translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Italian translations",
"Terms with Macedonian translations",
"Terms with Polish translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
"Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations",
"Terms with Spanish translations",
"Terms with Swedish translations",
"en:Times of day"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "triple witching hour"
}
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "witching",
"3": "hour",
"notext": "1",
"pos1": "adjective",
"t1": "of or pertaining to witchcraft or sorcery, or to witches or sorcerers",
"type": "endocentric"
},
"expansion": "witching (“of or pertaining to witchcraft or sorcery, or to witches or sorcerers”, adjective) + hour",
"name": "compound"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en"
},
"expansion": "English",
"name": "langname"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "midnight",
"uc": "1"
},
"expansion": "Sense 1",
"name": "senseno"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "1599–1602",
"short": "1"
},
"expansion": "c. 1599–1602",
"name": "circa2"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From witching (“of or pertaining to witchcraft or sorcery, or to witches or sorcerers”, adjective) + hour. Sense 1 (“midnight”) was popularized by the reference to the “witching time of night” in the play Hamlet (written c. 1599–1602; published 1603) by the English playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616): see the quotation.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "witching hours",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "witching hour (plural witching hours)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"witch‧ing"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "evil hour"
},
{
"word": "ungodly hour"
},
{
"word": "sundowning"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English literary terms",
"English poetic terms",
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "I wanted to get home before the witching hour.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "[c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], signature [H4], verso:",
"text": "Tis novv the very vvitching time of night, / VVhen Churchyards yavvne, and hell it ſelfe breakes out / Contagion to this vvorld: […]",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1811, Walter Scott, “John Leyden, M.D.”, in The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., volume IV, Edinburgh: […] [Stevenson & Co. for] Robert Cadell; London: Houlston & Stoneman, published 1843, →OCLC, pages 174–175:",
"text": "A party of his friends had met in the evening to talk over his merits, and to drink, in Scottish phrase, his Bonallie. While, about the witching hour, they were crowning a solemn bumper to his health, a figure burst into the room, muffled in a seaman's cloak and travelling cap covered with snow, and distinguishable only by the sharpness and ardour of the tone with which he exclaimed, \"Dash it, boys, here I am again!\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1960 March, “Sleeping Cars to the West”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 173:",
"text": "[T]he Penzance train is shown as non-stop to Plymouth in the down direction, but in the up as being prepared to pick up sleeping car passengers at Newton Abbot, Exeter and Taunton (the two last-mentioned at the witching hours of 2.42 and 3.25 a.m.) and also to set down at Reading.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1982 January 14, Roald Dahl, “The Witching Hour”, in The BFG, London: Jonathan Cape […], published 1985, →ISBN, page 10:",
"text": "Perhaps, she told herself, this was what they called the witching hour. The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world to themselves.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2003 June 9, “The Gloaming (Softly Open Our Mouths in the Cold)”, in Hail to the Thief, performed by Radiohead, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.: Capitol Records, →OCLC:",
"text": "Genie let out of the bottle / It is now the witching hour / Murderers, you're murderers / We are not the same as you",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Often preceded by the: midnight, when witches and other supernatural beings were thought to be active, and to which bad luck was ascribed; also (generally), the middle of the night, when unfortunate things are thought more likely to occur; the dead of night."
],
"links": [
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"the",
"the#Article"
],
[
"midnight",
"midnight#Noun"
],
[
"witches",
"witch#Noun"
],
[
"supernatural",
"supernatural#Adjective"
],
[
"beings",
"being#Noun"
],
[
"thought",
"think#Verb"
],
[
"active",
"active#Adjective"
],
[
"bad luck",
"bad luck"
],
[
"ascribe",
"ascribe"
],
[
"middle",
"middle#Noun"
],
[
"night",
"night#Noun"
],
[
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"unfortunate#Adjective"
],
[
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"thing"
],
[
"likely",
"likely"
],
[
"occur",
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],
[
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]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(chiefly literary or poetic) Often preceded by the: midnight, when witches and other supernatural beings were thought to be active, and to which bad luck was ascribed; also (generally), the middle of the night, when unfortunate things are thought more likely to occur; the dead of night."
],
"senseid": [
"en:midnight"
],
"tags": [
"literary",
"poetic"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2022 October 17, Jenn Cox, “Age-by-age Guide to Surviving Witching Hour”, in Kim Shiffman, editor, Today’s Parent, Toronto, Ont.: St. Joseph Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-01-17:",
"text": "Witching hour: It just might be the most challenging time of the day. That window between dinner and bedtime where kids are wound up, parents want to wind down, and it feels like the longest hour or two ever. And although the term witching hour is most commonly applied to newborns and babies, kids of all ages seem to be extra sensitive at this time. Here are some ideas for getting through witching hour for kids of all ages.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A time of day, usually in the early evening, when babies and young children are more fretful and likely to cry or fuss."
],
"links": [
[
"time of day",
"time of day"
],
[
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],
[
"children",
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],
[
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],
[
"cry",
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],
[
"fuss",
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]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(by extension)",
"A time of day, usually in the early evening, when babies and young children are more fretful and likely to cry or fuss."
],
"tags": [
"broadly"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"American English",
"en:Stock market"
],
"glosses": [
"The final hour of trading each month during which certain stock options expire, leading to a higher trading volume and greater price volatility."
],
"links": [
[
"stock market",
"stock market"
],
[
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],
[
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],
[
"price",
"price#Noun"
],
[
"volatility",
"volatility"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(by extension)",
"(originally and chiefly US, stock market) The final hour of trading each month during which certain stock options expire, leading to a higher trading volume and greater price volatility."
],
"tags": [
"broadly"
],
"topics": [
"business",
"finance",
"stock-market"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"en:Occult"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2008 July 22, Claudia Mair Burney, chapter 4, in The Exorsistah, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 42:",
"text": "\"Do you know what three a.m. is?\" […] \"It's called the witching hour. It's the reverse of the holy hour—three p.m.—when Jesus died on the cross.[…]\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2009 September 22, Rick Yancey, “The Devil’s Manger”, in The Monstrumologist, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster BFYR, →ISBN, page 349:",
"text": "The witching hour is three a.m., in mockery of the Trinity and a perversion of the hour of his death.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2020 April 27, Pamela Humphrey, “Momma at Costco (Wind Chime Breaks)”, in My Sister’s Walk with God: The True Stories of a Prophetic Intercessor, Murrells Inlet, S.C.: Covenant Books, →ISBN:",
"text": "By the way, the hour between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. is also known as the witching hour because it's thought that paranormal forces are at their strongest during that time.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The hour between 3:00 and 3:59 a.m., associated with demons."
],
"links": [
[
"occult",
"occult"
],
[
"hour",
"hour"
],
[
"a.m.",
"a.m."
],
[
"associated",
"associate#Verb"
],
[
"demon",
"demon"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(occult, less common) The hour between 3:00 and 3:59 a.m., associated with demons."
],
"tags": [
"uncommon"
],
"topics": [
"human-sciences",
"mysticism",
"occult",
"philosophy",
"sciences"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈwɪt͡ʃɪŋ ˌaʊə/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-witching hour.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/71/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-witching_hour.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-witching_hour.wav.mp3",
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},
{
"ipa": "/ˈwɪt͡ʃɪŋ ˌaʊ(ə)ɹ/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "En-us-witching hour.oga",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1b/En-us-witching_hour.oga/En-us-witching_hour.oga.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/En-us-witching_hour.oga"
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],
"translations": [
{
"code": "ar",
"lang": "Arabic",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"word": "ساعة السحر"
},
{
"code": "ceb",
"lang": "Cebuano",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"word": "tinggawas"
},
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "hodina duchů"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"word": "keskiyö"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "l’heure du crime"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "Geisterstunde"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "ora delle streghe"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "ora del diavolo"
},
{
"code": "mk",
"lang": "Macedonian",
"roman": "gluva doba",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "глува доба"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "godzina duchów"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "čas vedʹmovstva",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "час ведьмовства"
},
{
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"Cyrillic",
"neuter"
],
"word": "глуво доба"
},
{
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"Roman",
"neuter"
],
"word": "gluvo doba"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "hora de las brujas"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "spöktimme"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "midnight, as an hour bringing bad luck — see also midnight",
"tags": [
"common",
"common-gender",
"definite",
"singular"
],
"word": "spöktimmen"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "time of day when babies and young children are more fretful",
"word": "iltahuuto"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "hour between 3:00 and 3:59 a.m., associated with demons",
"word": "suden hetki"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Hamlet",
"William Shakespeare"
],
"word": "witching hour"
}
Download raw JSONL data for witching hour meaning in English (13.1kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-17 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (ca09fec and c40eb85). 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.