A Wizard is a person born to a wizard parent (whether the parent has their wizard powers or not), with supernatural powers. So far, in Wizards of Waverly Place, it is never explained if a wizard powers can be gained through study (ig: a non-wizard learn to cast spells by reading a spellbook), but its obvious that all wizards that appear in the series inherited their powers.
Wizard Competition
Only one sibling in a family may gain full wizard powers as an adult, which is decided by the Wizard Competition. The Wizard Competition (which is the main plot in the series) is spell combat between young, sibling wizards on an ancient battlefield (as seen in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie), in order to see who will win full wizard powers.
A wizard parent (or perhaps a wizard aunt or uncle) teleports the siblings to the battlefield, gives each a copy of the family wand if needed, and states the rules. The siblings pursue a glowing orb of magical energy produced by the parent and placed in the middle of the field, which is the power, and the first sibling to touch it wins. They are not allowed to use combat spells, but rather only spells related to the four elements of nature, namely earth, air, fire and water. They may use the spells to help themselves or hinder their siblings in order to reach the the power first, which will also move of its own accord. Apparently, the power will 'know' if the competitors are actually trying to win, otherwise it "won't work", perhaps meaning that someone that isn't trying will not get the power, even if they touched it first. The parent will then confirm that the siblings understand that the winner will get all the power, and the loser (or losers) will get nothing. The siblings are then teleported to opposites sides of the battlefield and the parent starts the competition.
It is not known when or why it was created but had a bad influence in wizard families (in the episode Retest it is said that many wizard families ended destroyed due to this).
Rules of Wizardry
Despite that, until now, a wizard powers seems to be unlimited (if the spells work or not depends of the caster learnship) there seems to be a few strict rules that wizards must respect. Those rules, shown to now, are:
- Never reveal you are a wizard, unless you encounter another wizard. Revealing magic and creatures may be hazardous to the Wizard World. (However, in Future Harper it is said that wizard existance passed to be public knowledge later on, all though is not yet know how)
- Never use the forbidden spells (Alex didn't respected this rule but it seems that she was not punished);
- If a wizard should marry a mortal (non-wizard), their powers will be lifted and handed to another sibling of their choosing, such as Jerry Russo who decided to give his powers to his brother Kelbo instead of the next most compitent sibling Megan.