How many times have we heard the whole arsenal of magic spells come out of the mouths of Harry Potter characters? The likelihood is, more than we think, and as the J.K. Rowling continued to churn out book after book, more and more spells crept into the mouths of the protagonists that have saved them from trouble on more than one occasion, or even sometimes have had a completely different effect.
If you have always wondered which spell is the one mentioned the most, but you don't have the time to re-read the books counting each time a spell pops up, then don't worry there is someone who has done the work for you.
Made into a graph, created by an American fan called Skyler Johnson, it allows the viewer to filter different spells in order of appearance in all of the seven books as well as seeing the spells with the greatest number of appearances throughout the saga. The latter is of great use as it allows us to see which are the go-to spells right from the start with 'Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone' all the way to 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part II'. Which spell do you think it will be? Place your bets.
"Accio", the spell used to cast an object from a great distance, is the most used in the literary saga. The other spells making up the top 5 include "Expecto Patronum", "Desmaius", "Expelliarmus" and "Lumos", which are all well known spells between fans. What about the lethal "Avada Kedavra"? It's not far behind, as it is the sixth most mentioned spell in the saga. However, this is not the only thing that the map allows us to discover, as, by way of curiosity, we can see the development of the spells. For example, in the first book only 7 spells were mentioned, and by the time of the final book 128 had appeared.
Below is the graph which shows all the spells, when they appear in the books, and even which paragraph they appear in. Enjoy!
