svengali

Sven·ga·li

S s

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [sven-gah-lee, sfen-]
- /svɛnˈgɑ li, sfɛn-/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [sven-gah-lee, sfen-]
- /svɛnˈgɑ li, sfɛn-/

Definitions of svengali word

noun svengali a person who completely dominates another, usually with selfish or sinister motives. 1
noun svengali a person who controls another's mind, usually with sinister intentions 0
noun svengali a person who dominates or manipulates another, esp. with evil intentions 0

See all 3 definitions of svengali

Information block about the term

Origin of svengali

First appearance:

before 1940

One of the 7% newest English words

First recorded in 1940-45; after the evil hypnotist of the same name in the novel Trilby (1894) by George Du Maurier

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Svengali

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Svengali

svengali popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 66% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

This word is included in each student's vocabulary. Most likely there is at least one movie with this word in the title.

svengali usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

Synonyms for svengali

noun svengali

machiavelli — Niccolò di Bernardo [neek-kaw-law dee ber-nahr-daw] /ˌnik kɔˈlɔ di bɛrˈnɑr dɔ/ (Show IPA), 1469–1527, Italian statesman, political philosopher, and author.
manipulator — a person who manipulates.

All 2 Synonyms of svengali