eldertongue

Modern English → Old English

Old English word for witch

5 headwords match “witch”, ranked by the scoring in the data pipeline. The five strongest follow; wicce ranks first.

  1. 1

    wicce

    score 24

    noun, feminine · weak n-stem · 4 inflected forms

    witch — witch

    • opens the headword's definition
    • listed as an English descendant
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular wiċċe
    genitive singular wiċċan
    dative singular wiċċan
    accusative singular wiċċan
    nominative plural wiċċan
    genitive plural wiċċena
  2. 2

    wicca

    score 22

    noun, masculine · weak · 4 inflected forms

    witch — witch, wizard, sorcerer, magician, druid, necromancer

    • opens the headword's definition
    • listed as an English descendant
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular wiċċa
    genitive singular wiċċan
    dative singular wiċċan
    accusative singular wiċċan
    nominative plural wiċċan
    genitive plural wiċċena
  3. 3

    hægtesse

    score 15

    noun, feminine · weak n-stem · 4 inflected forms

    witch — witch, hag, Fury

    • opens the headword's definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular hæġtesse
    genitive singular hæġtessan
    dative singular hæġtessan
    accusative singular hæġtessan
    nominative plural hæġtessan
    genitive plural hæġtessena
  4. 4

    hellerune

    score 15

    noun, feminine · weak n-stem · 4 inflected forms

    witch — witch, sorceress

    • opens the headword's definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular hellrūne
    genitive singular hellrūnan
    dative singular hellrūnan
    accusative singular hellrūnan
    nominative plural hellrūnan
    genitive plural hellrūnena
  5. 5

    helrynegu

    score 11

    noun, feminine · 4 inflected forms

    witch — sorceress, witch

    • appears in the definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular helrȳneġu
    genitive singular helrȳneġe
    dative singular helrȳneġe
    accusative singular helrȳneġe
    nominative plural helrȳneġa
    genitive plural helrȳneġa

How this ranking works

Scores are computed once, when the site is built, from the Wiktionary data. Every headword whose definitions mention “witch” gets the points below; the candidates are then sorted by total. The score is shown on each entry above so the order can be checked rather than trusted.

The English word opens the headword's definition+10
It appears later in the first definition+6
It appears in any definition+3
It is in the headword's links+2
It is listed as an English descendant (etymological evidence)+9
The headword has an inflection table+3
Part of speech is a proper noun−5
Part of speech is a verb (-ian derivations are noisy)−3
The headword is an alternative form−6
The first definition is longer than three words−2

A candidate has to be a real headword with its own entry: inflected forms and grammatical terminology (genitive, nominative, preterite, …) never appear here.

Not one of these?

The match may be a different sense of “witch”, or an inflected form rather than a headword. Look up the form directly — the entry page marks the grammatical case.

Candidates derived from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each entry links to its source page. · CC BY-SA 4.0 and attribution · CC BY-SA 4.0