Magic word

Magic words or words of power are words which have a specific, and sometimes unintended, effect. They are often nonsense phrases used in fantasy fiction or by stage prestidigitators. Frequently such words are presented as being part of a divine, adamic, or other secret or empowered language. Certain comic book heroes use magic words to activate their super powers. Magic words are also used as Easter eggs or cheats in computer games, other software, and operating systems. (For example, the words xyzzy, plugh, and plover were magic words in the classic computer adventure game Colossal Cave Adventure).

Examples of traditional magic words include:

Craig Conley, a scholar of magic, writes that the magic words used by conjurers may originate from "pseudo-Latin phrases, nonsense syllables, or esoteric terms from religious antiquity," but that what they have in common is "language as an instrument of creation."

The television game show You Bet Your Life, hosted by Groucho Marx in the 1950s, used the term secret word, not magic word. ("Say the secret word and win a prize!")

Software like uses "magic words" to make system information available to templates and editors, such as {{CURRENTTIME}}, which displays the server time: 05:23, see Help:Magic words.

Hexadecimal "words" used in byte code to identify a specific file or data format are known as magic numbers.

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