overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

Ouija.

A board, having letters of the alphabet and the words yes and no; used with a planchette during a seance to "communicate" with spirits.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈwiːd͡ʒə//ˈwiːd͡ʒi/
  1. A board, having letters of the alphabet and the words yes and no; used with a planchette during a seance to "communicate" with spirits.

    countable
  2. The use of such a board to attempt to communicate with spirits.

    uncountable
Where this word comes from

The popular belief that the word came from French oui (“yes”) + German ja (“yes”) is a misconception. The name is taken from a word spelled out on the board when it was asked to name itself by Helen Peters, sister-in-law of Kennard Company investor Elijah Bond. It is noted in personal letters that Ouija was the name of a woman in a painting above her head at the time, who it is speculated may have in fact been Ouida.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

Ouija has 5 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

Ouija studioOuija workshello, Ouija

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.