While the term witch itself is often applied as a catch-all word for female magic users in fiction, the witch, as it has evolved out of Western traditions and folklore, has a number of distinct trappings and tropes. While beliefs in witchcraft — the idea that people work malicious magic on their neighbors — are found in virtually every culture, being absent only in certain hunting and gathering societies and modern industrial ones, the details of the trope as it appears in Western works is almost exclusively derived from Western folklore.

• Traditional Witchy Attire: Black medieval, including hooded robes (which don't have to be always black), or colonial period dresses and a black pointed hat are the most traditional, but not every witch buys into the uniform. Often they dress normally, especially if they want to blend in, and the traditional clothing only comes out for spell casting or ceremonies. The Hot Witch especially tends to dress more wildly while the Wicked Witch is almost always traditionally attired. Goth clothing as well is also associated with classic witches, as is the New-Age Retro Hippie's typical style of flowy garments.
  Alternatively, they may appear naked (or "skyclad"). This is not (always) an artistic convention to allow depiction of nudity but has been found in religious traditions going back to Jainism (where the term skyclad came from) and Hesiod's Works and Days; however, the association of witchcraft with ritual nudity, as opposed to, say, just a lack of inhibitions, only goes back to the foundation of Gardnerian Wicca in the 1950s.
• Broomsticks as a Transportation Method: Witches are known for using broomsticks for flight (and sometimes fight). In works with low amounts of fantasy, this may be omitted, but broomstick flying is something that is relatively unique to witches and not strongly associated with other types of magic users.
• Animal Companions: Witches are often seen around animals, especially nocturnal ones. Cats are the most common by far, especially black ones, but owls, crows, toads, and mice are also traditional. The animal is usually a Familiar that aids in spells in some way or is sometimes magic in their own right. The animals being able to communicate with their owners through Telepathy, or just being able to speak to all humans, is common.
• Association with Nature and the Earth: Witches are often portrayed as very knowledgeable in the workings of nature, especially plants and weather. Whereas a Wizard Classic will have his head in the clouds, always watching the stars, a witch will be Closer to Earth, watching the seasons turn and advising people when to plant their crops. It's common for a witch to live alone in the woods, and to be a Nature Lover and Outdoorsy Gal. A witch probably has a Green Thumb too, so she can grow herbs for her Magic Potions, or just to scent her homemade soaps. Being in tune with nature, she may be both an Earthy Barefoot Character and a Magical Barefooter. Evil witches also tend to live out in the wilderness, although this is usually due to a combination of asociality and being outcasts rather than a particular connection with nature.
• Witchcraft: Witches practice witchcraft specifically as their type of magic, which usually takes one of two forms:
  Traditionally, "witchcraft" was used mostly as a shorthand for harmful or evil magic. Thus, witches often cast spells designed to harm or inconvenience others, sometimes going fully into the conceptual ground of Black Magic. Witch spells of this sort include a wide variety of curses and hexes, such as causing bad luck, spoiling milk, stealing babies' breath, making deals with spirits or demons, turning people into mice or toads, casting the evil eye, and otherwise causing a wide array of trouble for people who get on their bad side. Many fairytales begin with a witch casting some kind of powerful curse, which must then be broken through various trials and tribulations. Medieval folklore considered werewolfism to be a form of witchcraft as well, although this connection is rarely made in present media.
  Additionally or alternatively, it may be strongly tied to nature and may resemble European pagan-like traditions. Commonly their magic employs the use of herbs and strange ingredients like "Eye of Newt" bubbling away in cauldrons, as well as nocturnal ceremonies under the moon. Usually, a witch has a Spell Book, perhaps passed down through the family. In modern media, witchcraft is strongly associated with Hollywood versions of Real Life religions of Wicca and other forms of Neo-Paganism^note although most practitioners of these religions would not consider themselves "witches" and to call them as such could be taken as insulting, media tends not to differentiate. although in the past they were associated with many forms of local folk traditions. Witches usually belong to "covens", groups of witches who practice magic together, share knowledge and resources, and often meet to cast more powerful spells. Witches do not usually use a Magic Wand or Magic Staff, both of which are more commonly associated with the Wizard Classic for some reason.
• Associated with Femininity and Sisterhood: Witches are associated with femininity and sistership, though they're not Always Female in folklore or in most modern media. Male witches (sometimes called "warlocks" ^note  though in modern use a Warlock is far closer to an evil wizard than anything resembling one of these) do exist but are rarer than female witches. Witches also tend to have sisters, for whatever reason, and they have a strong tradition of passing their magic down from mother to daughter.
• Associated with the number 3: For whatever reason, witches are often seen in threes and involve three in their magic or worship. If a witch has sisters, she's probably part of a trio of siblings. A coven also usually has at least three members, or its members do magic in groups of three. This is most likely related to the concepts of The Weird Sisters and The Hecate Sisters, two tropes that link the number three with both women and divinity.

In early Western tradition, the witch was predominantly an evil figure. They worked malicious magic with everything from stealing wedding rings to lethal storms at sea and crop destruction, they made a Deal with the Devil (after which, in folklore rather than tales, the Devil did not actually have to do what he had promised them to do to get them to make it), and they extorted things by threats of curses.

In modern media, witches are now just as likely to be neutral or outright good figures. Media that has both often pit them against each other to form a Black-and-White Morality dynamic. Usually, good witches are pretty, and bad witches are (very) ugly, though when an evil witch is beautiful, she's usually a Vain Sorceress. Witches are often shown in contrast to a Wizard Classic, sometimes being rivals or outright enemies, or just often having differences in opinion. If an archetypal witch appears in a work involving more than two supernatural beings (vampire, ghost, werewolf, etc), she'll likely form a Monster Mash with them.

Be aware: the stereotypical witch is an anti-Semitic stereotype, from soup to nuts. The green skin of the witch is based on the olive Mediterranean complexion typical of the population of Israel, passed on to the descendants of the Diaspora. The insane hair of the witch is based on the tightly curled, kinky, or frizzy hair likewise associated with Ashkenazi Jews (though it varies wildly, through blond and red). Need we say anything about the witch's hooked nose? The warts and horrible teeth are, like propaganda that compares enemies to vermin and insect, perfectly standard and not unique to antisemitism, but ubiquitous to tropes about witches. What do witches mostly do? They kill and eat children in Satanic rituals! This is the blood libel, something that is hopefully obviously a lie applied by medieval antisemitic Christians to the Jewish populations in their midst. (Yes, the myth of enemies of the "good people" killing and sacrificing and eating children continues today, and is part of at least one popular political movement.)

Finally, we have the witch's clothing. She wears black robes and a tall pointy hat. Those arrive in medieval Europe, where Jews, in an effort to not be murdered as evil bankers when the economy went bad, dressed in extremely humble, black robes. On top of that, though, sumptuary laws (laws restricting clothing, requiring some people to wear some clothing and others not to wear other clothing) required Jews to wear the "Judenhut" (Jew Hat), a conical black hat... and a golden star.

The mythology of the witch continued to evolve from the 15th century, of course. It met the myths of the vampire and the werewolf and collided with the realities of poverty and mental illness. The Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) intended to codify witchcraft and how to find and prosecute it, but it also coincided with the Enlightenment, meaning that (barring a few aberrations in New England, like the Salem Witch Trials and a few episodes of digging up and staking "vampires"), the authorities were less likely to believe in witches, werewolves, and vampires. Less likely. The people accused and convicted were more likely to be the mentally ill, which the early modern age was more likely to accept as mental illness! The victims in those cases were sometimes... spared from death and sentenced to what passed for treatment for the mentally ill. However, there was a group of people with no defense: people who needed charity. They also, following the publication of the MM, were much more likely to be women.

One of the more common targets of witch, werewolf, and vampire hunts was the lonely old person at the edge of the community; someone who couldn't survive on their own; someone who didn't have family to support them. Victims were often lonely widows. Witches riding brooms, meanwhile, seems to stem from the fact that witch = woman = does woman's work and = does woman's horny. The witch's Sabbat was an orgy, after all; naturally the witch's signature tool was a household dildo. For women or for men.

A witch shown in a modern setting, in genres such as Urban Fantasy, tends to forgo a lot of the traditional associations and tropes tied to the Witch Classic, such as the attire and the broom riding, the character often seeing it as "too traditional". A common modern variation is for the witch to ride a vacuum cleaner (or even Roombas) as a joke. They usually acknowledge they are descended from, or taught by, witches in the European tradition. Thanks to the creation of paganism and Wicca in the last fifty years, today's witches are far more likely to be spiritual, using herbs and crystals. If they use the dreaded giant knife (an athame [pronounced "ah-thah-mey"]), it's probably to cut herbs for cooking. If they wear the pointy hat, they probably have no idea of its anti-Semitic roots, and believe they're reclaiming a pagan symbol. The hat was a thing 13th century Christians did to Jews in central Europe.)

Wicca and Pagan practitioners might not know their history; maybe they do. They gain serious spiritual and religious value from their practice. They are religions like any others.

• Due note, Pagan doesn't mean nature worship, it means related to rural and rustic, or non urban.

Subtropes of Witch Classic include:

• Cute Witch: When Witch Classic is crossed with Rule of Cute, resulting in a Magical Girl version.
• Hot Witch: When Witch Classic is crossed with Rule of Sexy.
• Wicked Witch: When Witch Classic is crossed with Obviously Evil.
• The three combined create one form of The Hecate Sisters. (Cute for the Maiden, Hot for the Mother, Wicked for the Crone)

Other tropes related to witches:

• All Witches Have Cats: The tendency for witches to have cats.
• Burn the Witch!: The number one method to get rid of a witch, be she good, evil, or not even a witch to begin with.
• Good Witch Versus Bad Witch: The process in fiction by which the original Wicked Witch became a Good Witch Classic.
• Salem Is Witch Country: The tendency for witches to set up shop in Salem.
• Unequal Rites: Commonly involves feminine "witch magic" being contrasted to masculine "wizard magic".
• The Weird Sisters: Witches like to form teams of three.
• Widow Witch: The tendency of witches to be widows and widows to be accused of being witches.
• Witch Hunt: When the populace tries to root out a witch or some other undesirable.
• The Witch Hunter: The most feared enemy of witches (because they hunt them).

Compare other Always Female magic users, such as the White Magician Girl, Black Magician Girl, Lady of Black Magic, Magical Girl, Solitary Sorceress, and Vain Sorceress.

While a Witch Doctor also practices magic, they have nothing to do with the Witch Classic. While sometimes witches are a Mage Species, this is not always, or often the case.

Examples: