Grimoire
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A book of instructions in the use of alchemy or magic, especially one containing spells for summoning demons.
"There is something exceedingly unpleasant in being obliged to answer "No," to a traveller's "Pray, Sir, were you ever abroad?" and to sit mum-chance all the time that he is running over the "grimoire" of outlandish technicalities. For my own part, I am convinced that man is, par excellence, a travelling animal; [...]"
- 2 a manual of black magic (for invoking spirits and demons) wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"The wizard read from the old grimoire."
Etymology
Borrowed from French grimoire, a variant of grammaire, from Old French gramaire (“grammar; grimoire; conjurer, magician”), from Latin grammatica (“grammar; philology”), from grammaticus (“relating to grammar, grammatical”), from Ancient Greek γρᾰμμᾰτῐκός (grămmătĭkós, “knowing one's letters; concerned with textual criticism”), from γράμμα (grámma, “that which is drawn or written; letter; book, writing”) + -ῐκός (-ĭkós, suffix added to noun stems to form adjectives). γράμμα is derived from γρᾰ́φω (grắphō, “to cut into, scratch; to draw, paint; to write”, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to carve”)) + -μᾰ (-mă, suffix added to verbal stems forming neuter nouns denoting the result of, a particular instance of, or the object of an action). The English word is a doublet of glamour, glamoury, gramarye, and grammar.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.