Magic word

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This might also refer to the article Wikimedia Meta Help: Magic Words

Magic words are words which have a specific, and sometimes unintended, effect. They are often nonsense phrases used in fantasy fiction or by stage prestidigitators. Certain comic book heroes use magic words to activate their super powers. Magic words are also used as Easter eggs or cheats in computer games, other software, and operating systems. (For example, the words xyzzy, plugh, and plover were magic words in the classic computer adventure game Colossal Cave Adventure.)

Examples of traditional magic words include:

Abracadabra - prototypical magic word used by magicians
Alakazam
Ephphatha! - used by Jesus to cure a deaf and mute man Mark 7:31-37
Hocus pocus - a phrase used by magicians
Klaatu barada nikto - A phrase used in the 1951 movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still"
Open sesame - used by the character Ali Baba in the English version of a tale from the collection popularly known as 1001 Arabian Nights
Presto chango or Hey Presto - used by magicians (probably intended to suggest "quick change")
Shazam - used by the comic book hero Captain Marvel
Talitha koum! - used by Jesus to bring a dead girl back to life Mark 5:39-43
XYZZY from Colossal Cave Adventure

Craig Conley, a scholar of magic, writes that the magic words used by conjurors may orginate from "pseudo-Latin phrases, nonsense syllables, or esoteric terms from religious antiquity," but that what they have in common is "language as an instrument of creation."^[1]

Note that the television game show You Bet Your Life, hosted by Groucho Marx in the 1950s, used the term secret word, not magic word. ("Say the secret word and win a prize!")

Software like MediaWiki uses "magic words" to make system information available to templates and editors, such as {{CURRENTTIME}}, which displays the server time: 02:36, see Help:Magic words.

The term magic word may also refer to the word please when used by adults to teach children manners: