wizard

[wiz-erd] /ˈwɪz ərd/
noun
1.
a person who practices magic; magician or sorcerer.
2.
a conjurer or juggler.
3.
Also, whiz, wiz,
[wiz] /wɪz/ (Show IPA). a person of amazing skill or accomplishment:
a wizard at chemistry.
4.
Computers. a software feature that guides users through complex procedures with step-by-step instructions, often presented in dialog boxes.
adjective
5.
of or pertaining to a wizard.
6.
magic.
7.
British Slang. superb; excellent; wonderful:
That's wizard!
Origin
1400-50; late Middle English wisard. See wise1, -ard
Related forms
wizardlike, adjective
Synonyms
1. enchanter, necromancer, thaumaturge, diviner.
Examples from the web for wizard
  • It's full of dragons, and big wizard battles, and magic.
  • After downloading the free tool, walk through the installation wizard and tell it what folders you want to sync.
  • It must therefore have seemed a wizard wheeze to organise a conference on the grand subject of science itself.
  • Maybe it's the way a court wizard will hire mercenaries to hunt you down for stealing his potions.
  • Up in a tower a queen and her two sons are being help captive by an evil wizard.
  • Use of this license application wizard is voluntary.
British Dictionary definitions for wizard

wizard

/ˈwɪzəd/
noun
1.
a male witch or a man who practises or professes to practise magic or sorcery
2.
a person who is outstandingly clever in some specified field; expert
3.
(obsolete) a wise man
4.
(computing) a computer program that guides a user through a complex task
adjective
5.
(informal, mainly Brit) superb; outstanding
6.
of or relating to a wizard or wizardry
Derived Forms
wizardly, adjective
Word Origin
C15: variant of wissard, from wise1 + -ard
Word Origin and History for wizard
n.

mid-15c., "philosopher, sage," from Middle English wys "wise" (see wise (adj.)) + -ard. Cf. Lithuanian zynyste "magic," zynys "sorcerer," zyne "witch," all from zinoti "to know." The ground sense is perhaps "to know the future." The meaning "one with magical power" did not emerge distinctly until c.1550, the distinction between philosophy and magic being blurred in the Middle Ages. As a slang word meaning "excellent" it is recorded from 1922.

Slang definitions & phrases for wizard

wizard

adjective

Excellent; great, tits, super

[1922+; first recorded in Sinclair Lewis, but afterwards chiefly British]


wizard in Technology

1. A person who knows how a complex piece of software or hardware works (that is, who groks it); especially someone who can find and fix bugs quickly in an emergency. Someone is a hacker if he or she has general hacking ability, but is a wizard with respect to something only if he or she has specific detailed knowledge of that thing. A good hacker could become a wizard for something given the time to study it.
2. A person who is permitted to do things forbidden to ordinary people; one who has wheel privileges on a system.
3. A Unix expert, especially a Unix systems programmer. This usage is well enough established that "Unix Wizard" is a recognised job title at some corporations and to most headhunters.
See guru, lord high fixer. See also deep magic, heavy wizardry, incantation, magic, mutter, rain dance, voodoo programming, wave a dead chicken.
4. An interactive help utility that guides the user through a potentially complex task, such as configuring a PPP driver to work with a new modem. Wizards are often implemented as a sequence of dialog boxes which the user can move forward and backward through, filling in the details required. The implication is that the expertise of a human wizard in one of the above senses is encapsulated in the software wizard, allowing the average user to perform expertly.
[Jargon File]
(1998-09-07)
wizard in the Bible

a pretender to supernatural knowledge and power, "a knowing one," as the original Hebrew word signifies. Such an one was forbidden on pain of death to practise his deceptions (Lev. 19:31; 20:6, 27; 1 Sam. 28:3; Isa. 8:19; 19:3).