Voldemort
noun, verb ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An evil, harmful, or widely feared person or thing.
"[…] Oscar has been called the Voldemort of Fleet Street by both friends and enemies. He was apparently ruthless in all his business dealings.'"
- 1 To avoid naming someone or something directly; to use circumlocution. transitive
"PhD candidate and attendee NatalieZed (2015a, 2015b) instead Voldemorted the hashtag by using #Deatheaters – a term for Voldemort’s supporters, also from the Harry Potter novels – to refer to Gamergate harassers: […]"
Example
More examples"[…] Oscar has been called the Voldemort of Fleet Street by both friends and enemies. He was apparently ruthless in all his business dealings.'"
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.
Related phrases
More for "voldemort"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.