wizard

The word wizard is most commonly used to refer to someone who can perform magic, but it also has a modern sense meaning someone who is highly skilled. Let’s conjure up some synonyms for both.

Words for a magical person

In the context of magic, synonyms for wizard include magician, sorcerer, enchanter, and conjurer. Sorcerer and enchanter also have female-specific versions: sorceress and enchantress (which is more commonly used than enchanter).

The words sorcerer and sorceress often (though not always) refer to figures who practice so-called black magic—magic used for evil purposes. In fantasy books and movies, these words are often used for evil characters.

In contrast, the words wizard and magician usually imply that such figures use their powers for good. If not, you might call them an evil wizard or a dark wizard or an evil magician. The word necromancer is often specifically used to refer to someone who uses magic to raise the dead—or other dark doings.

Sometimes, a distinction is made in which the word wizard is used for males and the word witch is used for females, but both wizard and witch can be used regardless of gender. The word warlock typically refers to a male witch.

A less common but very cool word for a wizard is thaumaturge.

Words for a highly skilled person

Calling someone a wizard to indicate that they’re extremely skilled at something suggests that they’re so good that it’s almost like magic. In this way, the word magician can be used to mean the same thing, as can sorcerer and sorceress.

This sense of wizard is commonly used in terms that specify what the person is good at, such as math wizard or computer wizard. The word wiz is a shortening of this sense and can be used in the same way (as can the spelling variant whiz). A similar word is ace.

When this sense of wizard is used in the context of mental or intellectual wizardry, a close synonym is genius.

If the skill level is very high for the person’s age, you could use prodigy.

The word virtuoso is especially used of musicians, but can be used in any context.

Some people use pop culture-related terms like rockstar and jedi.

This sense of wizard is a good word to use to avoid using similar terms that are sometimes considered forms of cultural appropriation, such as ninja and guru.

The first records of the word wizard in English come from the 1400s. It comes from the Middle English wisard, from the word wise. The suffix -ard is used in words referring to a person who frequently engages in a specific activity or is known for a specific characteristic (in this case, for their knowledge and wisdom).

The suffix -ard is most commonly used in negative words, unlike wizard, such as coward.

The suffix itself derives from the Germanic -hard, which literally means “hardy” or “bold” and is the basis of the final element in many Germanic masculine names, such as Bernard and Gerard.

As suggested by the previous section, wizard is related to the word wise. Even though a wizard might be wizened, the two words aren’t related.

A wizard practices wizardry and may be described as wizardly. The word wiz—as in math wiz—is a shortening of wizard (the word whiz is simply a spelling variant).