Tom is a bogeyman. If he lets himself be seen, all the children take flight.
Source: tatoeba (3484556)
Bogeyman
//ˈboʊ.ɡiˌmæn//
Synonyms for "bogeyman" (51 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (11)
Strong matches (15)
Related words (25)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
Translations
89 translations across 40 languages.
Albanian
1 entries- gogol noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Ancient Greek
1 entries- μορμολυκεῖον noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Arabic
3 entries- بو خنشة noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- بوعو noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- بُعْبُع noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Basque
1 entries- hamalau-zaku noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Catalan
2 entries- home del sac noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- papu noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Chinese Mandarin
2 entries- 怪物 noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- 魔鬼 noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Czech
3 entries- bubák noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- strašidlo noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- strašák noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Danish
4 entries- bussemand noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- bussemand noun (any make-believe threat)
- bøhmand noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- bøhmand noun (any make-believe threat)
Dutch
2 entries- bietebauw noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- boeman noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Esperanto
1 entries- infantimigulo noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Estonian
1 entries- koll noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Finnish
2 entries- mörkö noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- mörkö noun (any make-believe threat)
French
1 entries- croque-mitaine noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Galician
4 entries- coco noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- papón noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- sacamanteigas noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- sacaúntos noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
German
2 entries- Butzemann noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- Schreckgespenst noun (any make-believe threat)
Greek
1 entries- μπαμπούλας noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Hungarian
2 entries- krampusz noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- mumus noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Italian
3 entries- babau noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- spauracchio noun (any make-believe threat)
- uomo nero noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Japanese
2 entries- ブギーマン noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- 小鬼 noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Korean
2 entries- 꼬마 도깨비 noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- 부기맨 noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Ladino
1 entries- bambaruto noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Latgalian
1 entries- buba noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Latin
1 entries- larva noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Latvian
1 entries- bubulis noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Lithuanian
2 entries- baubas noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- bubulis noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Macedonian
2 entries- Баба Рога noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- Баба Рога noun (any make-believe threat)
Norman
2 entries- barbou noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- croque-mitaine noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Norwegian
1 entries- busemann noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Persian
1 entries- لولو noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Polish
3 entries- czarny lud noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- czarny lud noun (any make-believe threat)
- straszydło noun (any make-believe threat)
Portuguese
3 entries- bicho-papão noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- homem do saco noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- papa-figos noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Romanian
3 entries- baubau noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- gogoriță noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- omul negru noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Russian
4 entries- баба́й noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- бу́гимен noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- бу́ка noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- домово́й noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Serbo-Croatian
2 entries- babaroga noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- бабарога noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Spanish
4 entries- coco noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- cuco noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- cucuy noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- hombre del saco noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Tagalog
2 entries- mumu noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- mumò noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Tajik
1 entries- буҷӣ noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Tamil
1 entries- பூச்சாண்டி noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Turkish
4 entries- canavar noun (any make-believe threat)
- gulyabani noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- hortlak noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- karakoncolos noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Vietnamese
2 entries- ngoáo ộp noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
- ông ba bị noun (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)
Sample sentences
12 total sentences available.
If you don't behave the bogeyman will come!
Source: tatoeba (8449308)
There's a bogeyman under my bed!
Source: tatoeba (11879869)
Bogyphobia is the irrational fear of the bogeyman.
Source: tatoeba (11879911)
Showing 4 of 12 available sentences.
Keep exploring
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.