incantation

in a sentence

. . . though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation.  (source) R. J. Palacio, Wonder, 2012

So you just decided to try out an unknown, handwritten incantation and see what would happen?  (source) J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2005

Haints, Hot Steams, incantations, secret signs, had vanished with our years as mist with sunrise.  (source) Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960

He passed his hand over Annabeth's face and spoke an incantation.  (source) Rick Riordan, The Last Olympian, 2009

Prepare your incantations and take me there at once.  (source) C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew, 1954

When you think about it, the cause-effect begins to resemble some mad logic-loop by the data artist Carolus or perhaps a print by Escher: the Shrike had come into existence because of the incantatory powers of my poem but the poem could not have existed without the threat/presence of the Shrike as muse.†  (source) Dan Simmons, Hyperion, 1989

The storm of sound beat at them, an incantation of hatred.  (source) William Golding, Lord of the Flies, 1954

I spent that night awake, making plasticine creatures, breathing prayers and incantations and commands on them while the moon shone down at me.  (source) David Almond, Clay, 2005

He cleared his throat, his eyes gleaming and his voice taking on a deep, incantatory quality, as though he had told the story many, many times.†  (source) Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, 1952

These words had been underlined with a blue pencil and they worked on Mrs. Hopewell like some evil incantation in gibberish.  (source) Flannery O'Connor, Good Country People, 1955

But they could not open it, not though they all pushed while Gandalf tried various incantations.  (source) J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, 1937

He had dreamed that Annie Wilkes was Scheherazade, her solid body clad in diaphanous robes, her big feet stuffed into pink sequined slippers with curly toes as she rode on her magic carpet and chanted the incantatory phrases which open the doors of the best stories.†  (source) Stephen King, Misery, 1987

She turned to face the exit and began to execute a series of elaborate gestures in the air in front of her while whispering the words of some incantation.†  (source) Ernest Cline, Ready Player One, 2011