magic word

English

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˌmædʒɪk ˈwɜːd/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˌmædʒɪk ˈwɝd/

Noun

magic word (plural magic words)

  1. Any word that has a magical effect when uttered.
  2. (in teaching polite behaviour to children) One of the words please, thank you, or hello.
    What's the magic word?
  3. (by extension) Any word that is considered very significant in a certain situation or context.
    When someone offers you drugs, the magic word is "no".
  4. (computing) A string of text having some special function or purpose.
    Coordinate term: magic number
    • 2021, Clinton L. Jeffery, Build Your Own Programming Language, page 273:
      The header consists of an optional self-execution script, a magic word, a version number, and the word offset of the first instruction, relative to the magic word.
    One of the magic words used in the MediaWiki software is __NOTOC__, which hides the table of contents that would normally be on the page.

Translations
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