"Witch", like "Wizard", is a word that is sometimes used to name a specific kind of magic user, usually female. The word, witch, is, as Wicca notes, derived from the Old English wicce, for "female magic-user". That connection to femininity sometimes makes witchcraft into a Gender-Restricted Ability, and sometimes not. Given the trope of Wicked Witch and similar portrayals, "witch" may or may not also be associated with evil female magic users in a work, while "mage" or "magician" is used for magic users in general.
This trope, like the other Our Monsters Are Different tropes, is about how the term "witch" is used for specifically designating certain groups of beings. In the case of witches, they are usually humans, or at least look like it.
The Sub-Trope of Witch Classic notes how broad and widespread the concept of a witch is, since "witchcraft beliefs — the folkloric that people work malicious magic on their neighbors — are found in virtually every culture", but "Classic" means the stereotypical Western idea, for witches that have a combination of:
- Robe and Wizard Hat
- Flying Broomstick
- Familiar or similar
- Some connection to femininity, nature, and the number 3
- Magic Cauldron and potion-based witchcraft.
Which has its own sub-tropes, of Cute Witch, Hot Witch, and Wicked Witch, the last of which is about witches that are clearly presenting as evil, in obvious/stereotypical villain fashion.
Those sub-subtropes can overlap with their super-super-trope if there's something special about their definition of "witch", such that the more specific tropes don't totally describe what makes a witch. For example, if witches possess Facial Markings, along with being guaranteed young and female, then the facial markings make witches different beyond just being a Cute Witch.
Other sub-tropes of the general "witch" concept, are:
- All Witches Have Cats: Many witches have familiars in the form of cats.
- Burn the Witch!: Superstitious communities who believe Magic Is Evil will often resort to burning would-be witches at the stake after a classical Witch Hunt.
- Good Witch Versus Bad Witch: In cases where not all witches are evil, there is often a marked distinction between "good" witches and "bad" witches.
- Salem Is Witch Country: The town where the infamous witch trials took place has taken on a reputation for witchcraft ever since.
- The Weird Sisters: Witches are in groups of 3.
- Widow Witch: Many witches are lonely sorts, usually having suffered a loss in love.
- The Witch Hunter: The grim, fanatical and often evil hunter of witches.
The Mage Species trope only sounds related, it's actually for species where all its members have a species-specific power. For the cases where they are also literally called witches, then it overlaps with this trope, likely playing with the femininity of this trope by making them a One-Gender Race.
Then there's Witch Doctor, for a tribe's resident shaman, healer, and wizard.
Examples:
- Black Butler: Subverted. Sieglinde Sullivan is an ordinary human girl with extraordinary intellect. The "green witch" is actually a title of a military project.
- El Cazador de la Bruja: Witches are a Mage Species-type of Human Subspecies who mostly lost their powers in modern times. Ellis is an artificial witch, created in an attempt to restore the magical bloodline. Jodie, on the other hand, is a pure-blood witch but has about as much magical potential as any baseline human. It is also suggested that there were further artificial witches besides Ellis (possibly including L.A.) but they all died/were killed off.
- Digimon: Witchmon is a digital entity resembling a witch in a red witch hat and robe, who rides on a broomstick alongside a cat familiar. She comes from a region of cyberspace home to Digimon that study advanced programming languages (which, from the point of view of purely digital entities, are functionally magic) to manipulate the digital world, and views herself as a rival to Wizardmon. While she doesn't have a dedicated evolution chain, evolutions paired with her in various media include the mage-like Wisemon and the demonic LadyDevimon. Her most notable animated appearance, in Digimon Ghost Game, has her manifesting in the material world on Halloween where she tries to build an army by turning anyone wearing a witch costume at that time into witches under her control.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury: The term "witch" is applied to people capable of building or piloting Gundams, which use the GUND-Format to link a pilot's body directly to the machine, enabling unsurpassed performance at the cost of potentially fatal physical and mental strain on the pilot. The GUND-Format therefore assumes characteristics of The Dark Arts, being a dangerous and forbidden technology, and suspected witches are persecuted by a regulatory body whose arbiters are politically motivated and empowered to make arbitrary judgements regardless of evidence for or against conviction.
- Ojamajo Doremi: Witches are an Always Female race that comes from Another Dimension. They used to co-exist alongside humans, but due to a curse cast hundreds of years ago by the previous Witch Queen Tourbillon, they will be now transformed into frogs if one finds out about their origins. The only way for them to turn back to normal is to train an apprentice in using her magic to pass various exams in order to become a fully fledged witch and earn their own Magic Crystal, which is what happens to the titular main character Doremi and her friends.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica: A witch is an Eldritch Abomination who spreads despair and kills humans. No two are alike, some even having bizarre motivations for what they do, but they all create labyrinths to hide in, attended to by familiars, while influencing unlucky humans into killing themselves, or walking into the labyrinth where the witch kills them itself. Magical Girls are recruited by the enigmatic Kyubey to battle these witches, and when they are killed, they drop a grief seed which can be used to purify a magical girl's soul gem. What Kyubey doesn't tell them is that witches are actually former magical girls who either used up their magic or crossed the Despair Event Horizon.
- Rosario + Vampire: Witches are monsters that look indistinguishable from humans, except they can do magic. They come in both male and female.
- Soul Eater: Witches are humans born with magical power and incredibly long lifespans, which seems to be somewhat affected by genetics (Medusa, Arachne, and Shaula are siblings that are all witches) but mostly random (Rachael and Kim are witches but seem to have no relatives that are, while Medusa's gender-ambiguous child definitely isn't a witch). Witches are shown but not acknowledged as exclusively female, and the only male user of witch magic got his power by stealing a witch's eye. Most witches live or at least cooperate under a sort of government. Their magic gives them chaotic tendencies, which has long put them at odds with the order-based followers of Lord Death, but the manga shows them as not generally evil.
- Sugar Sugar Rune: Witches can be both male and female, and come from the 'magical world', and they use the emotions of humans as a power source and a currency. Love between witches and humans is taboo, and while humans can produce an infinite number of hearts, a witch only has one heart, so if she falls in love with someone and that person takes her heart, she'll die. The witch world also has a markedly different culture from the human world.
- Tweeny Witches: The witches in the narrow sense are an ethnic group native to the Magical Realm. They're notable for being all-female, dressing mostly in black, and traditionalism, though it's revealed late into the series that Lennon is a male witch.
- The Witch and the Beast: Witches are the descendants of the seventeen Origin witches, from whom they inherit a natural magic talent that can put them in the same league as an archmage. The talent expresses itself primarily in female descendants, though not every member of the bloodline will develop magic. Each bloodline has its own unique magic and distinct Ultoma, but all share the ability to apply a curse. Witches tend to be inhumanly beautiful and do not age on reaching adulthood, though they will grow old and die after two hundred years.
- Witchblade: A Weapon Title, that implies that all of its wielders are witches. It has Evil Knockoffs and all their wielders are women.
- Beast Fables: Witches
are one of the oldest religious groups in Erob, and are skilled at using the magical remains of dragons and other ancient beasts. Though they have seen a decline in much of the world due to a rivalry with Alchemist Guilds.
- Witchblade: A Weapon Title, that implies that all of its wielders are witches and that quality is usually a Gender-Restricted Ability for women only.
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: Adushul people seem to use witch to mean a generic, usually evil, female magic-user. With the evil males being warlocks.
- Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls:
- Seaponies can't cast spells like unicorns they have a specialized group called Witches of the Sea that can call upon the Sea Spirits that allow them to use magic. Twilight speculates that those spirits are in reality Ocean's natural magic field, and Seawitches use their innate magic to influence and draw from it like Earth Ponies.
- Technically they are not witches, but Bounts, but Scootaloo's aunts share a lot of familiarities with them. They live in an old house covered in Celtic symbols and other trinkets, far outside of town. They're seclusive, know how to brew potions, and their powers resemble spells. Lofty even have a doll a.k.a. a familiar that takes the form of a cauldron.
- Human Trixie takes it a step further by dressing like a witch (pointed hat, a cape, etc.), and her weapon is a Magic Staff with which she can cast curses. Her Bount Doll even takes the form of Black Knight.
- Infinity Train: Boiling Point: Alongside what's already known from canon, a Witch's blood has magical properties depending on the witch, being able to either sprout plants or even heal injuries.
- KibblesTasty: Witches are implemented as a subclass of the Occultist class. They gain a choice of Coven that gives them extra spells (including special Curse spells that require material from the target to be cast), and an intelligent familiar with special abilities depending on the Coven chosen. Their subclass-specific Occult Rites allow for gaining other stereotypical witch traits, such gaining a flying broom or the ability to brew spells into potions.
- Not the intended use (Zantetsuken Reverse): "Chapter 21: OMAKE 3 Halloween": Talks about witches at Halloween, and that male witches are "warlocks".
- Witches in Resonance Days share very few traits that are commonly associated with witches in folklore, nor do they have much in common with the Eldritch Abominations from the original anime. In the afterlife, a Witch is a magical girl who has crossed the Despair Event Horizon and become said abomination, and then was killed. Upon arriving in the afterlife, they retain no memory of being magical girls or their lives before that, and only vague memories of their lives as monsters. Physically, they look close to what they did as magical girls, but have one obviously inhuman trait, ranging from a simple tattoo to having large parts of their bodies removed or replaced.
- In SlifofinaDragon
's Sengoku Basara fanfics, Kyogoku Maria seems to have studied magic (having her own magical laboratory at her manor), the late Toyotomi Hideyoshi's daughter Kagehime already mastering said arts for four years at her own pace, whereas Maria’s sister-in-law Oichi already has magic flowing through her veins.
- There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton:
- In this verse, the term "witches" — with "wizards" being the male counterpart solely for this classification — applies on Earth only to those magic users who are born with inherent magic, due to being descended (however distantly) from one deity or another. Those without that lineage who have to gain magic from study are termed "sorcerers", while those who gain it from a Deal with the Devil are "warlocks".
- And then there's the Witches from the Boiling Isles, who are an entirely separate species from humans, with their own inherent magic. Word of God is that, if Earth's magic users become aware of them, they'd consider the name fitting, given that the Boiling Isles Witches ultimately gain their magic from the corpse of the Titan.
- Bewitched: The Film of the Series Bewitched, in that it's about the filming of a remake of the series, with a real magical witch as the witch character.
- Blood Machines: The Human Aliens that piloted the Mima are all female with stark red hair. When the Mima "dies", they enact a ritual that creates a giant sigil on the ground, makes the planets in the solar system align and results in the creation of a god-like woman from the Mima's "corpse".
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail: This mob brings a witch. They want to burn her. They learn that witches burn because they’re made of wood.
- The Last Witch Hunter: Mage Species-type that can breed with humans, and it appears that they're the result of humans intermingling with a more "pure" witch species. The Witch Queen is more of a Humanoid Abomination that resembles a cross between a hag and a dryad, so she's probably an example of what that looked like.
"Witches live among us in secret. Their magic passed down from an ancient race, diluted, half-forgotten, but dangerously powerful."
- Thelma commemorates the original Norwegian portrayal of witches as positive magical creatures before the influence of Christianity. If Thelma was born in a different time, her powers would classify her as a witch and possibly why these powers are only manifested in females.
- The Witches (2020): Grandmamma specifically calls them demons that only look like humans.
- Their main distinctive feature here is the fact that they are bald and wear wigs to blend into human society.
- While the other witches still have square, toe-less feet, the Grand High Witch bears a long, single toe on each of hers.
- The film demonstrates two aspects that are unique to this adaptation - they only have two Creepy Long Fingers and a thumb per hand, and "elongated mouths that stretch to their ears", complete with Scary Teeth and a forked tongue - the mouth resembles a Glasgow Grin when the witches are passing themselves off as human women.
- Additionally, whenever they sustain an injury or die, they turn into metallic dust shards, further demonstrating they're not human.
- The Wizard of Oz: This film features some of the most famous witches put to film, specifically, Glinda the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West, as well as the Witch of the West's sister the Wicked Witch of the East — whom Dorothy accidentally kills by crushing her with her house. The witches in Oz are divided into two categories, good witches like Glinda and bad witches like the Witch of the West, and according to Glinda, only bad witches are ugly. This is demonstrated with the Witch of the West, who has green skin, a long pointy nose and a Thin Chin of Sin. All of the witches have powerful magic, they may or may not be human (the Witch of the West resembles the green-skinned, long-nosed "Winkies" who guard her castle and Glinda has a fae vibe to her) and the Witch of the West melts on contact with water for unexplained reasons (at least in the film, the book explains that she kept herself alive with magic for so long that her body basically dried up into a sand-like consistency).
- The Alchemaster's Apprentice: They are called "Ugglies", Schrecksen in German, and seem to be a One-Gender Race.
- The Belgariad: Witchcraft and Sorcery are separate Functional Magic systems with no relationship to gender. Witches summon and negotiate with invisible Nature Spirits to do their bidding, while Sorcerers have purely Thought-Controlled Power with broader applications.
- A Chorus of Dragons: Witches are magic-users who practice their trade illegally, meaning without an official permit to practice magic and without having studied at the imperial mages' academy. The term is technically gender-neutral but, because all female magic-users are witches by definition (women are legally prohibited from studying magic), "witch" has become strongly associated with female mages in common usage.
- The Courtship of Princess Leia: For some reason, Allya's descendants only could use the Force if they were female since no one had seen a "male Witch" as they call it until Luke. Given that Force ability is hereditary, perhaps in her case, it was carried solely by the female sex chromosomes (though it would be an outlier as this is never seen in any other case of Force-sensitive).
- Dare to Be Scared:
- "The Halloween Spirit" has a ghostly, shapeshifting witch who's summoned via a pentagram and poses as the protagonist's five-year-old sister to trick her.
- "The Quilt" involves the spirit of thirteen witches who enshrined their souls in a quilt to avoid a Witch Hunt, and end up coming back to life and recruiting the protagonist (who has purchased the quilt) to join their coven.
- Nana Olga in "Class Cootie" and Bernice in "Green Thumb" are benevolent witches who care deeply for the child protagonists they look after and are willing to curse and/or kill anyone who stands in their way.
- Discworld: Wizardry and witchcraft are separate forms of magic that are mostly gender divided, with each side looking down on the other. Exceptions exist, such as the early mention of wizards in Krull not caring much either way, and Equal Rites is all about a girl who is, inconveniently, destined to be a wizard instead of a witch. Terry Pratchett's opinion, at least referenced in a narrative aside, is wizardry being systematic was more suited to men while witchcraft being initiative/emotional was more suited to women. (Although he also said that the real reason women weren't allowed to be wizards was because they'd probably be good at it.) Witchcraft tends to be Boring, but Practical compared to wizardry, because witches would rather let people assume that they're using magic than actually do it.
- Dune: The sisters of the Bene Gesserit are often derided as "witches", though their "magic" is really the result of their use of Spice and their intensive Prana-Bindu training, giving them mastery over both mind and body.
- Earth's Scariest Monsters!: Diana is a young witch. Her appearance takes cues from both the Wicked Witch and Witch Classic (messy black hair, a nose that's slightly more pointed than a human's, bright green skin, pointed black hat, and dark clothes). She also has bright red eyes. Her vast magical abilities include conjuring up plates of food, speeding up time, levitating inanimate objects, transforming part of Deborah's house into a runway with a spotlight, creating sparkles of purple and white light to surround Isabelle during her fashion show, and teleporting people around. Additionally, Diana has a Flying Broomstick that she uses to fly her friends from place to place. Finally, she's Weak to Fire, which is likely a reference to the Burn the Witch! trope.
- Witches in Elcenia make Magic Potions, from shampoos to "pef tan" (which makes anything an Impossibly Delicious Food) to "moon water" (which lets wizards deal with channeling sting). Contrast the world's other types of magic: Wizardry note , lightcraftnote , magerynote , and sorcerynote .
- Harry Potter: "Witch" and "wizard" are just the gendered term for human magic-users, to the point where you could often switch them out for "woman" and "man" in the narration.
- Her Spell: Here, witch is the term for female magic users (male ones are warlocks). They don't wear stereotypical attire, but do frequently have familiars and brew potions inside of cauldrons (though this is just one form of magic they use). Sometimes they have been persecuted as a result of being wrongly blamed for bad things going on, but most are good. Evil witches do exist and practice The Dark Arts. They are called maleficians.
- His Dark Materials: In Lyra's world, witches are a One-Gender Race, possessing magical tendencies and long life. Their male offspring (fathered by human males) are normal humans. Male witches did exist elsewhere in the multiverse, though they are only mentioned once.
- Land of Oz: Witches are high-powered female magic users. In the first book, there are specifically four: the Good Witches of the North and South, and the Wicked Witches of the East and West. The next book muddies that system with Mombi, a wicked witch not included in that count. It's also worth noting that Glinda, Good Witch of the South and explicitly the most powerful, is sometimes called a "sorceress," possibly indicating that that's considered a higher title.
- The Lord of the Rings: "Witch" is used in its archaic sense as an evil magic-user in a general sense. The most prominent holder of this title is the Witch-King of Angmar, the chief of the undead sorcerers that serve Sauron.
- Malediction Trilogy: Witches are always human, always female magic users. They are born with the ability, which seems to run in the family, and can use Elemental Powers, as well as Blood Magic to power their spells.
- Mercy Thompson: Witches refers to magical users who are able to control magic using their minds and bodies which differs from other magic users like wizards who require objects to cast spells. Witches form their own covens which can in some cases number in the dozens. They come in two distinct varieties:
- Black witches gain their powers from inflicting pain on others and are considered Always Chaotic Evil. Black Witches consume white witches to become more powerful.
- White Witches are witches that don't gain their powers through inflicting pain and are more innocent and good-hearted spellcasters.
- My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister: Helen is a Circe witch, who specializes in brewing potions that transform living things.
- In later Night Watch (Series) novels, only female Dark Others can become witches. The witches are Closer to Earth and tend to rely on amulets than straight-up spells. However, they also rather quickly become old hags and are forced to use magic almost constantly to maintain their Hot Witch appearance. In the final novel of the main series, it's revealed that witches were the third type of Others to appear in the world, back during the Stone Age, after vampires and shapeshifters. They started wearing amulets in the form of jewelry to protect them from men, and Muggle women then picked up the jewelry-wearing fashion for the same reason (i.e. if a man isn't sure that a jewelry-wearing woman isn't a witch, he won't try to assault her).
- In Night World, witches are considered a separate species from humans, albeit very similar and capable of interbreeding with them. They're born with the ability to perform magic, which is refined through training. Witches tend to live longer than humans, but also tend to have fewer children. There are far fewer male witches compared to female witches, which has resulted in witch society being largely matriarchal (and contributes to the population problems, especially as the Night World has outlawed witches from knowingly entering relationships with humans; witches who didn't realize they were witches are let off the hook). Too much iron is toxic to witches, much more so than humans. Witches can also be turned into vampires like humans. Witches who become disconnected from the Night World and don't realize their true natures are known as lost witches. Lost witches who find out about the Night World are usually welcomed as long as they keep the rules, although some of these witches have so little magical power they never find out about the Night World or are treated as humans who merely have a bit of witch ancestry.
- The Otherworld: Witches are a female One-Gender Race which are in contrast and often conflict with the all-male Sorcerers. Witches live in covens and first gain their full spellcasting potential as a Puberty Superpower, a.k.a after they begin to menstruate.
- In the Otherverse setting note magic users are almost universally referred to as Practitioners (one powerful Practitioner going so far as taking offense to being called a wizard and calling it a ‘vulgar’ term) however the three protagonists of Pale are distinctly based on several witchy tropes: They wear pointed hats and capes note , operate in a trio of girls with the explicit purpose of balancing each other’s flaws, and begin their practice in a more equal arrangement with the local magical nonhumans with less regimented instructions. Later in the story they begin referring to themselves as witches as a title and will often introduce themselves as the Witches of Kennet.
- Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: Witches are Witch Classic, but with Blood Magic and Alchemy Is Magic.
- Release That Witch: Witches are exclusively female and always obtain their powers before adulthood. They are also sterile and persecuted by the masses. This becomes a mystery when the demon hordes contain male and female magicians.
- Re:Zero: Witches are individuals who possessed a Witch Factor and an Authority that manifested from a Factor of the Seven Deadly Sins. They hold such great power that they might as well be gods. They are the reason why the Witchbeasts exist, the reason why non-humans have emotions, and the reason why the world is the way it is. While most of the original seven are dead, they all continue to persist as souls long after their flesh has rotted away.
- Septimus Heap: Witches in the Septimus-verse mostly work with potions and Magykal items rather than outright spellcasting, and have icy blue eyes. They are often in rivalry with Wizards, who have green eyes, and do work with outright spellcasting.
- Shadow Falls: Witches are the closest to how they're traditionally portrayed though apparently, conditions like Dyslexia can make it incredibly difficult to cast spells such as in Miranda's case.
- The Springstorm Alpha: Maggie the witch is a brewer of spells and scholar of the arcane whose command of spellcasting makes her into an absolute powerhouse. She can fly, brew healing potions, conjure walls of force, and create massive illusions. She is, without a doubt, the single strongest fighter around. She's supposed to be an especially powerful witch, but only because she's older and more experienced. Other magic users could theoretically rise to her level. Maggie leans into a lot of traditional witchy imagery, though this is mostly because she seems to like it.
- Sweet & Bitter Magic: Here, "witch" appears to be just the name for magic users overall. They don't have stereotypical traits. Most of them are good, aside from a few that practice dark magic. The majority are female, but some male ones also briefly appear. However, they aren't focused on.
- Sword of Truth: The witch women are powerful spellcasters, living for many centuries. The abilities shown include illusion, foresight, and a degree of time manipulation, along with more mundane offensive magic. Everyone gives them a wide berth.
- Throne of Glass: Their witches are divided in Iron Tooths (with three great families ruled by three Great Witches) and Crochans, who fight each other and lost their kingdom centuries ago.
- In Francisco de Goya's Vuelo de Brujas (Witches Flight) they can fly in the air without the use of brooms.
- In Christopher Stasheff's Warlock of Gramarye series: Gender-Restricted Ability-type Psychic Powers: Witches (women) are telekinetic.
- Witch King: Witches are one of the varieties of magic-user in the setting. They're humans with a bit of demon ancestry that empowers them to work magic through Nature Spirits.
- Andre Norton's Witch World has female Virgin Power witches. They are shocked when Simon Tregarth, a man from another world, has the same powers. (And more shocked when a witch marries him and keeps her powers.)
- Being Human (US): Witches come into the equation in Season 3.
- Witches practice wield magic through a spellbook.
- Witches appear to be immortal, but only because they consume the ghosts of people that their blood magic kills by proxy. Donna, in particular, has been alive since the 17th century, although that's when she died the first time around.
- Witches can only be killed through another magic spell, which Sally is taught by the medium that Danny first hired to exorcise her.
- Bewitched: Wizards Live Longer, but for witches, who are the female magical humans, with warlocks as the male, and at least the protagonist witch can have children with her human husband.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Witchcraft has no gender restriction: though most practitioners are female, there are male users who are usually referred to as warlocks. Giles borrowed the power of an entire coven to take on Dark Willow, Angel and Xander are both shown to use spells, Oz and several frat boys accidentally summon the demon of fear, and there are a few guys in UC Sunnydale's Wicca group.
- The multiple Charmed series, the newer being a remake/reboot, of the older, featuring witch sister trio protagonists. More specific information on witches by version:
- Charmed (1998): Witches are implied to be entirely female early on (and warlocks entirely male) until a male witch is introduced half-way into season 1 and female warlocks are seen occasionally. The show never draws a distinction between evil witches and female warlocks. Regular humans can practice magic to an extent, but lack the natural abilities magical witches have.
- Charmed (2018): It's Mage Species style. No Muggles can learn magic. Witches are tasked with protecting mortals from demons. They all have a basic power set of spellcasting, potion making and divination, which includes not only using Ouija boards but also scrying, while individual witches might have extra Personality Powers as well. Unlike the original, witches are explicitly female-only. A transgender witch can cast spells, but isn't born with an active power.
- Emerald City: Witches are apparently only born to Mother South, seemingly a species unto themselves, unable to be killed by mundane means unless killed by another witch and able to resurrect themselves.
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996): Witches can be both male and female and are effectively demigods. They can control time, manipulate the weather, create damn-near anything they want, teleport, and transform anything into anything else. They can also live for centuries, with the aunts mentioning that they were children in the 1300s. Magic is an inherent gift, but does have a lot if nuance and takes training to learn how to use properly. The witches seem to be a human subspecies, with the ability to use magic being a rare dominant trait, as even half-witches are expected to develop the gift by the time they are 16. They can also interbreed with mortals fairly freely. Half-witches aren't quite as strong as full blood witches, but only really becomes a problem if they try to directly pit their powers against one. Though knowledge and skill has been shown to be able to bridge the gap, such as when Sabrina (a half-witch) manages to get her cousin Amanda (a full witch) into a finger trap by outsmarting her.
- Historical European folklore and folk practices tended to use "witch" broadly to mean any malicious user of evil arts, usually but not exclusively women, who were believed to consort with demons and use their powers to harm people. Historic Church doctrine formally denied that any kind of supernatural power outside of God's existed, therefore witches didn't either — all proclaimed witches were not that and all self-proclaimed witches were frauds. Folk practices tended to instead view supernatural powers and magic as very real, but also tended to make a distinction between malicious magic and helpful magic and arts. Practitioners of the former were the ones typically called witches, and a great deal of effort could be spent in trying to avoid or foil the work of witches if it was believed to be afoot. Practitioners of the latter, which could be a local wise woman or cunning man or even the village priest, were distinct things and could be the ones asked for help against witches when these were thought to harm one's self, family, or community.
- Black Annis of English folklore is a Wicked Witch who is said to prey on humans, especially children, and reaches into windows to seize them with her huge iron claws.
- The so-called "river hags", spooky old women who lurk in murky rivers, lakes and swamps and like to reach out and drag people to their watery graves. Grindylow, Jenny Greenteeth and Peg Prowler are noteworthy examples of this. The story varies on whether or not they can perform magic.
- Baba Yaga of Slavic folklore is one of the most archetypal takes on a Wicked Witch, being an imposing, solitary old woman who practices dark magic. Whether or not she's a powerfully-magical human or something else entirely tends to vary from story to story. It is thought by some that Baba Yaga may have derived from more ancient figures, including various witches, monsters and goddesses.
- In Classical Mythology, most witches are also deities of some variety, such as Hekate (the goddess of magic, darkness and ghosts), Circe (a demigoddess who used magic to transform men into pigs for the hell of it), Pasiphae (a demigoddess who was married to King Minos of Crete and conceived the Minotaur with the Cretan Bull) and Medea (another demigoddess who used her magic to craft a Perfect Poison that caused her love rival to burst into flame). The Graeae, a triad of goddesses who looked like decrepit old women who shared a single eye and tooth amongst themselves, could be seen as prototypes of the archetypical "Terrible Trio of Wicked Witches". The distinction between "goddess/demigoddess" and "witch" is rarely made clear, and there do not appear to be full-blooded mortals who fall into this category, though there are some who act as Seers.
- The krasue/manananggal/penanggalan of Southeast Asian, Indonesian, and Philippine folklore, a viscera-eating female monster who resembles a disembodied human head with her organs and entrails dragging behind her, is more often perceived these days as a vampire, but in folklore, it was also perceived as an evil sorceress. The most common way she would attain her terrifying form is by performing a dark magic ritual where she would bathe in vinegar.
- The mangkukulam of the Philippines is said to be a practitioner of dark sorcery. Most mangkukulam specialize in Sympathetic Magic, and one of their favorite tricks is to use a spell on their designated victim that causes insects to burrow out of their skin. One way to free yourself from the mangkukulam's curse is to ask a friendly Witch Doctor to whip you with the tail of a stingray until you cry out the name of the witch who cursed you — the idea being that it's not you being whipped, but the witch.
- Our Miss Brooks: In "Halloween Party", Miss Brooks ponders dressing up as a witch for the titular party. Connie is annoyed that when she makes the suggestion, teenagers Walter Denton and Stretch Snodgrass immediately think it's a great idea. Then Love Interest Mr. Boynton replies that the things most associated with Halloween are black cats and witches. Connie decides to give in, going for a Witch Classic:
Miss Brooks: Connie Brooks rides tonight!
- Forgotten Realms: Rashemen is both a matriarchy of witches (arcane spellcasters who also worship a triple goddess, transparently inspired by Wicca) and a nation of berserker warriors.
- Pathfinder: The witch is an arcane spellcasting class that gains their powers by communing with a "patron". They have a spell list focused on party support and debuffs, and a class feature called "hexes" that grants various supernatural powers—everything from cursing a target to fall asleep to be able to turn their hair into an offensive weapon. In 2nd edition witches aren't just arcane casters; depending on their patron they can be occult, primal, or even divine spellcasters.
- Warhammer 40,000: "Witch" is a common pejorative term used to refer to psykers, either unsanctioned psykers in particular or all psykers as a general category. It's especially common for Imperials to use "witchcraft" to refer to the psychic powers of aliens — "xenos witch" is a common insult for Eldar psykers in particular.
- Warhammer Fantasy Battle: "Witch" is used broadly to refer to magic users who practice strange, unhealthy, evil, or simply mysterious forms of magic.
- The ruler of the malicious Dark Elves is the Sorcerous Overlord Malekith the Witch-King.
- Witches are humans who illegally study wizardry outside the Imperial Colleges, cobbling together spells that go beyond the minor magic of the Hedgefolk but fall far short of what a Magister can do. Although they don't necessarily practice Black Magic, many slip into it accidentally or go insane and embrace it.
- The Ice Witches of Kislev practice a unique form of ice magic that draws on their country's ley lines. A prophecy foretells ruin if a man learns ice magic, so Kislevite men with magical potential are either killed by The Magocracy or smuggled out of the country to learn wizardry in the Empire.
- Ungol Hag Witches are women whose magic commands Nature Spirits through special ingredients rather than channel the Background Magic Field directly. They specialize in managing spirits, Curses, and healing, and are generally held to be Creepy Good, as contact with the otherworld prematurely ages them into twisted hags.
- Witch Girls Adventures: Unsurprisingly, only females can be witches. Though they have a male counterpart in the Immortals.
- Monster High: Witches are treated as a subset of monsters known as Magicians, being humanoid monsters who can wield magic. Casta Fierce, Spelldon Cauldronello and Mrs. Kindergrubber are noteworthy examples of witches in the series, and all of them seem to fall under the category of Amazing Technicolor Population (but then again, so do most characters in this franchise).
- Bayonetta: Only women can become Umbra Witches, whose power comes from making pacts with demons and are enhanced by the light of the moon.
- Claritas - Dungeon Crawler RPG: The Witch is depicted as a sinister sorceress who specializes in curse spells that stack arcane damage over time, highlighting the trope of witches having unique and often dark magical abilities.
- Dead Estate: Cordelia, the game's Ms. Fanservice, is a witch. Because the game isn't really focused on the characters' backstories, not a lot is known about how Cordelia's magic works or what her status as a witch signifies. She's definitely a sexy, seductive Witch Classic rather than a demon-worshipping crone or anything similar. Her intro cinematic and the Sorcery for Dummies item suggest that Cordelia started taking an interest in magic in her pre-adolescent years before being gifted a magic staff for Christmas as a teenager, and possibly dropped out of college to pursue witchcraft full-time.
- Dragon Age: Mages are usually sorted into two distinct groups - Circle mages, who are trained and "housed" (read: imprisoned) in special facilities under religious oversight, and maleficar, who live outside of Chantry control and are routinely hunted by Templars. However, Flemeth - a recurring character first encountered in Dragon Age: Origins - and her daughters are the only characters repeatedly identified as witches. Specifically, they are the Witches of the Wilds, and they are considered so powerful and dangerous that even the Templars usually steer clear. This is wise, considering that Flemeth is basically a host of a powerful Physical God, even as a remnant from what she used to be, is still powerful than usual mages.
- Final Fantasy VIII has the Sorceresses, who are originally referred in the Japanese version as Witches. They are all female and the only ones who can actually use magic naturally, in contrast to the rest of humanity who have to resort to artificial means to gain magic. Their powers are not fully given an explanation, but one aspect is that they are not born with their powers, but they are instead born with the potential to inherit the power of other Sorceresses, and pass their powers on before their death - only a woman born with the potential to become a Sorceress can inherit a dying Sorceress's power.
- Magical Deathpair is a deathmatch adventure game featuring Magical Girls and Magical Boys, both called Witches in the English version, who are a secret society that hunt monsters in costume.
- Titan Quest: They're mixed with Harping on About Harpies, by being a type of Brush Harpy.
- The Witches' Tea Party: An in-game book states that monsters such as witches are defined as such by having curses. Witches, because of their human appearance and ability to breed with them, are basically a Human Subspecies that's immortal, magical, female, and cursed.
- Xyanide: The duology is a Space Opera whose main villain, Aguira, is a "space"-witch. Who gains Reality Warper powers after assimilating with an asteroid filled with the titular unobtanium, for reasons unknown.
- Umineko: When They Cry: The Witches are more akin to eldritch beings than regular practitioners of magic. They're all immortal, extremely powerful beings who work on Blue-and-Orange Morality who torment mortals because they're bored. They make pacts with demons and turn them into their 'furniture' that serve them, and there are certain 'classes' of Witches with specific powers which can be inherited, such as the Endless Witch having control over time, life and death, the Witch of Miracles who can make anything come true as long as the chances of it happening aren't 0%, and so on. There's also a Witch Senate made up of powerful beings, whom Lambdadelta and Bernkastel are part of. Witches also run on Clap Your Hands If You Believe and can be erased if their existence is denied. Also they may actually not be real and more metaphorical, the story leaves that part very open to interpretation.
- Homestuck has a lot of characters with magic abilities, but "the Witch" is a particular game class whose specific characteristics are not very clear. Characters of that class include Jade Harley, the Witch of Space; Feferi Peixes, the Witch of Life; and Damara Megido, the Witch of Time.
- Klunscomic: Tajer Yamia may be a witch, but she doesn't have a magic wand, nor does she dress in the stereotypical Robe and Wizard Hat aside from holidays like Walpurgisnacht.
- Latchkey Kingdom: Witches are subject to Doing In the Wizard like most other seemingly supernatural things in the setting. Svana is treated like a Court Mage but in practice she's more like a scientist who dresses in a cloak of raven feathers and periodically needs to be rescued from villagers with Torches and Pitchforks.
- Muted: The witch families of New Orleans tie their magic to gender identity, meaning transgender women gain magic while transgender men lose it. Also, each family can only use one type of magic, or risk health issues.
- Nixvir: The Wicked Witch of the North Pole may be easily considered the most bizarre example on this entire list! For starters, she's not even human! She appears to be some kind of bizarre big cat-like creature with six legs, an unusually pointed snout with nine whiskers on the end (nine being the most magical number in the World Oak) and only has a single telescopic eye. She also appears capable of Super-Speed, and magically co-ercing other species to doing her bidding.
- Widdershins: All magic involves Randomly Gifted people working with spirits. Wizards train to do this through Ritual Magic, while the vanishingly rare Witches have more intuitive magic, have innate Supernatural Sensitivity and are linked to one of the world's four magical Anchors. Both are gender-neutral, though Jack o'Malley is the only male Witch in the comic.
- We Are Our Avatars: Witches were normal humans who strike a deal with some force of the universe (usually Death), and always carry around an item that serves as the symbol of the contract.
- Omni Bleach Abridged: Uryu is one, his Quincy power apparently being the result of black magic.
- Adventure Time: Maja from "Sky Witch" is green and requires a Equivalent Exchange to endow others with powers. She has a natural Voice of the Legion.
- Gumby: The Witty Witch enjoys entertaining children instead of frightening them. She may capture people, but only to be her audience for her performances, and then let them go afterward. She also prefers flying in a helicopter outfitted with a witch's broom on the tail and a huge spacecraft shaped like a witch's hat.
- Over the Garden Wall: Several witches inhabit the Unknown, the most notable being Adelaide, the "Good Woman of the Woods", a Master of Threads whom the heroes seek out for help (Greg and Wirt to return home, Beatrice to have her curse lifted), and her large, menacing sister, Auntie Whispers, a creepy old hag who appears to eat human travelers and keeps a sickly young girl named Lorna as a servant. It turns out, Adelaide was actually Evil All Along and planning to turn the boys into brainwashed slaves, while Auntie Whispers was Good All Along and only making Lorna work for her to keep the demon that was causing her sickness contained. Both witches are Ambiguously Human, especially Auntie Whispers, with her disproportionately large head, frog-like eyes and appetite for live turtles, while Adelaide actually melts upon contact with fresh air.
- The Owl House: Witches are a humanoid race capable of magic rather than a particular type of human, and their magic comes from a bile sack attached to their heart. Consequently, the term is gender-neutral, though rarely used for male individualsnote . However, a human can learn to use magic by drawing various sigils, as the main character Luz discovers. Luz sometimes calls herself a "witch" anyway, though it's not addressed how technically correct that is.
- Winx Club: Witches are a Mage Species and the Evil Counterpart Race to Fairies. Both are all-female. The reboot establishes warlocks exist though, the only one seen so far, Damien, is implied to actually be a male fairy. After all, he's Bloom's brother.
