Other forms: charming, charms, charmed
Charm is the quality that makes people like you within a minute of meeting you. The easy smile, the question about your weekend, the sense that of everyone in the room you are the one being listened to. Some people have it and it is very hard to fake.
Charm is a verb as well: he charmed the whole table, she charmed her way past the doorman. A second family of meanings sits alongside — a charm is a small object carried for luck, on a bracelet or loose in a pocket, and a charm is words said or sung to work magic, which is where the word began. In the plural, charms means the attractive things about a place: the village has its charms, and the bus service is not one of them. Works like a charm means it worked perfectly, first go. Charming is the adjective, and tone decides everything, because said flat and slow it means the opposite.
1nouncharmThe power of pleasing people and making them like you.
“He got the flat with charm and no references at all.”
synonyms: appeal, allure
2nounsmallA small object worn or carried for good luck.
“She wore a silver charm on a chain around her wrist.”
3nounwordsWords said or sung to work magic; a spell.
“The old book was full of charms against bad weather.”
4verbpleaseTo please someone so much that they like you or do what you want.
“He charmed the landlord into knocking fifty pounds off the rent.”
5nounattractiveThe attractive features of a place or thing. Usually plural.
“The town has its charms, though not in February.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Charm came from Old French charme, a chant or magic spell, from Latin carmen, song or incantation. So a charm was first of all something sung. The pleasant person and the muttered spell are the same word, and both are about putting somebody under one. It displaced the Old English word lybb.
Latin
carmen — song, incantation
Old French
charme — chant, magic spell
Middle English
charme
English, today
charm
From Middle English charme, from Old French charme (“chant, magic spell”), from Latin carmen (“song, incantation”). Displaced native Old English lybb (“drug, poison, charm”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA