noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A female spirit, usually taking the form of a woman whose mournful wailing warns of an impending death. Ireland, Scotland

   "Late had he heard, in prophet's dream, / The fatal Ben-Shie's boding scream […]."

2. 2
   (Irish folklore) a female spirit who wails to warn of impending death wordnet
3. 3
   A noisy or ill-tempered woman. derogatory

   "Where's this old banshee that runs the place?"

Synonyms

All synonyms

apparitionappearancearielastralastral spiritbanshie

Example

More examples

"The banshee let out a blood-curdling scream."

Etymology

Borrowed from Irish bean sí, from Old Irish ben síde (literally “woman of the fairy mound”). The term banshee entered English in 1771.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.