Home › Glossary › Letter W

Witching Hour

Folklore
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The time between midnight and 3 a.m., when the veil between worlds is thinnest, and witchcraft is most potent.

Detailed Definition
Witching Hour in poetry symbolizes the suspension of order—the hour when reason sleeps and the unconscious walks. It appears in Gothic and lyrical verse as the moment the world forgets itself, and magic is not belief, but law.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Macbeth: “When shall we three meet again? / In thunder, lightning, or in rain? / When the hurlyburly’s done, / When the battle’s lost and won. / That will be ere the set of sun.”—this is the witching hour”; in Keats’ “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” the witching hour is when the knight awakes alone; in Coleridge’s “Christabel,” the witching hour is when Geraldine enters the castle; in Tennyson’s “Morte d’Arthur,” the witching hour is when the barge takes the king away; in Yeats’ “The Wild Swans at Coole,” the witching hour is the twilight when the swans take flight; in Emily Dickinson’s “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died,” the witching hour is the breath before the last sigh.
Additional Notes
Witching Hour is the time between midnight and 3 a.m., when the veil between worlds is thinnest, and witchcraft is most potent. In folklore, it is when the dead walk and spirits speak. In poetry, it symbolizes the peak of mystery, the hour of reckoning, and the silence before revelation. Poets use it to frame climaxes, revelations, and the deepest darkness before dawn.
Other Meanings of “Witching Hour”
Also Known As
Hour of the Witch Dead of Night Midnight
Skip to main content