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obeah.

A form of folk magic, medicine or witchcraft originating in Africa and practised in parts of the Caribbean.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈəʊbɪə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈobia/Caribbean
  1. A form of folk magic, medicine or witchcraft originating in Africa and practised in parts of the Caribbean.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A magician or witch doctor of the magic craft.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A spell performed in the practice of the magic craft; an item associated with such a spell.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Uncertain; apparently from a Caribbean creole, probably ultimately from a West African language. The Oxford English Dictionary points to Igbo abià (“knowledge, wisdom”), obìa (“doctor, healer”). Cognate of Aukan obiya, Saramaccan obia, and Sranan Tongo obia.

verb/ˈəʊbɪə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈobia/Caribbean
  1. To bewitch using this kind of folk magic.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Uncertain; apparently from a Caribbean creole, probably ultimately from a West African language. The Oxford English Dictionary points to Igbo abià (“knowledge, wisdom”), obìa (“doctor, healer”). Cognate of Aukan obiya, Saramaccan obia, and Sranan Tongo obia.

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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.