Specter

//ˈspɛktɚ// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A ghostly apparition, a phantom. US

    "A specter haunted the cemetery at the old Vasquez manor."

  2. 2
    a mental representation of some haunting experience wordnet
  3. 3
    A threatening mental image; an unpleasant prospect US, figuratively

    "A specter is haunting Europe — the specter of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies."

  4. 4
    a ghostly appearing figure wordnet
  5. 5
    Any of certain species of dragonfly of the genus Boyeria, family Aeshnidae. US

Synonyms

All synonyms
apparitionghostphantomspookwraithwraith

Example

More examples

"A specter is haunting Europe — the specter of communism."

Etymology

From Middle French spectre, from Latin spectrum (“appearance, apparition”). Doublet of spectrum.

Related phrases

Brocken specterMacleay's spectremountain specterraise the specterspecter at the feastspecter batspecter candlespecter of the Brockenspecter shrimpspecter batspecter candlespecter shrimp

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