conjure

conjure — verb

1. to cause something to appear or happen suddenly, as if done by a stage magician'

1.verbtransitive / intransitiveB2
Definition

to cause something to appear or happen suddenly, as if done by a stage magician's trick rather than by normal physical means

Example

The magician conjured a white dove from an empty silk handkerchief.

conjure + noun from + noun (physical object)

Pim watched as the old woman conjured hot soup and bread from her tiny cupboard.

Common collocations
  • conjure a rabbit/dove/coin
  • conjure from/out of
  • conjure from thin air
  • conjure with a wave of the hand
Synonyms
  • summon

    more formal and associated with calling spirits or people, whereas conjure suggests a magician's trick

  • produce

    neutral and factual, without the magical or surprising implication of conjure

Antonyms
  • banish

    to send something away rather than make it appear

  • disappear

    to vanish or cause to vanish, the opposite of making appear

Grammar Patterns

conjure + noun

conjure something from/out of something

conjure (no object)

Usage Note

Often used with up as a phrasal verb (conjure up), particularly for the metaphorical sense of evoking memories or images. The direct object in the literal sense is typically a small physical item such as a coin, dove, or flower.

Common Mistakes

The wizard conjured a storm using his wand.
The wizard summoned a storm using his wand.
'Conjure' is mainly used for small stage-magic objects, not large-scale weather events; use 'summon' or 'call' for that context.
She conjured up about moving to a new city.
She thought about moving to a new city.
'Conjure up' means to make something appear or bring a memory to mind; it does not mean 'think about' or 'consider'.
Phrasal verbs

conjure up

phrasal verb

to make something appear suddenly, as if by a magician's trick

The chef managed to conjure up a delicious three-course meal from a few basic ingredients.

Cyrus conjured up a handful of coloured ribbons from thin air, delighting the children at the party.

conjure up

phrasal verb

to bring a memory, image, or feeling into someone's mind

The old black-and-white photographs conjured up happy memories of her childhood summers by the sea.

Tamás finds that the smell of cinnamon always conjures up a warm feeling of holiday mornings.

conjure from

phrasal verb

To create or produce something as if by magic, using available materials or ideas.

The chef conjured a delicious meal from leftover vegetables.

Can you conjure a solution from these limited resources?

conjure out of

phrasal verb

To create something seemingly from nothing, or to produce something unexpectedly.

The magician conjured a rabbit out of an empty hat.

She conjured a beautiful painting out of a few simple colors.

Idioms

a name to conjure with

idiom

A person or thing that is very famous and admired in a specific area.

Einstein is still a name to conjure with in physics.

In the art world, Frida Kahlo is a name to conjure with.

Word family

  • conjurer
    nounB2
  • conjuror
    nounB2
  • conjuring
    nounB2
  • conjuration
    nounC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

Conjure, summon, evoke, produce, and materialize all involve bringing something into awareness or existence, but differ in register and context. Conjure suggests a display of skill that seems magical — a stage magician conjures a coin or rabbit. Summon is more formal and often implies calling someone or something to a place (a manager summons an employee; a wizard summons a spirit). Evoke is always metaphorical and concerns feelings, memories, or images (the music evoked sadness), not physical objects. Produce is neutral and factual (the factory produces car parts). Materialize means to become visible after being hidden or uncertain (the taxi finally materialized out of the fog). Use conjure when you want the sense of clever, surprising creation; use produce for plain statements; use evoke for emotional or mental effects.

summon ↗evoke ↗produce ↗materialize ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • conjure from thin air
  • conjure out of nothing
  • conjure with a flick of the wrist

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchEnglish

Conjure comes from Latin conjurare, meaning 'to swear together' (from com- 'together' + jurare 'to swear'). In medieval times, people believed that invoking or 'swearing in' spirits could force them to appear. By the 1500s the word had softened into the modern sense of performing magic tricks — less about commanding demons and more about entertaining an audience.