Svengali

//svɛŋˈɡɑːli// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One who manipulates or controls another as by some mesmeric or sinister influence; especially a coach, mentor or industry mogul.

    "She also offers a fascinating glimpse into a more innocent age before svengalis began colluding with marketing men and TV execs to promote talentless wannabes to overnight success."

  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of svengali. alt-of
  3. 3
    someone (usually maleficent) who tries to persuade or force another person to do their bidding wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
accessbad influencebig wheelcourteminence griseestablishment

Example

More examples

"She also offers a fascinating glimpse into a more innocent age before svengalis began colluding with marketing men and TV execs to promote talentless wannabes to overnight success."

Etymology

Named for the hypnotist character Svengali in George du Maurier's novel Trilby. More at citations.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.