specter

American  

[spek-ter] / ˈspɛk tər /

especially British, spectre

noun

• specters
  plural

1. 

   a visible incorporeal spirit, especially one of a terrifying nature; ghost; phantom; apparition.

   Synonyms:

   shade

2. some object or source of terror or dread.

   the specter of disease or famine.

---

Synonym Usage

See ghost.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• specters
  plural

Etymology

Origin of specter

First recorded 1595–1605; from Latin spectrum “appearance, form”; see spectrum

Explanation

A specter means a ghostly apparition, a ghost itself, or simply an idea that people find frightening. You can give yourself nightmares if you listen to too many stories about ghostly specters appearing in dark windows. Specters as fears are the kind that tend to loom on the edge of our minds, lying dormant for awhile, then raising their ugly heads. It can be hard to sleep if you think too much about the specter of a terrorist attack, or the specter that your blabbermouth cousin might spill the beans to your parents about the night you two took your dad's car without asking. The word can also be spelled spectre.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

specter specters

Yet the image of the male Viking warrior stubbornly lingers, drawing crowds while also haunting the galleries like a restless specter.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026

LAX’s long-awaited Skylink train is 99% complete yet faces mounting uncertainty, as bond ratings sink into junk territory and looming 2026 deadlines raise the specter of default and termination.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

But they raise the specter among the public of rogue computers acting on their own.

From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026

The specter of SpaceX is hanging over AT&T, Verizon and other telecommunications stocks as investors fear an Elon Musk-led industry shakeup.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026

As for Tante Jans, her own particular specter moved very close.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

Donors respond to big claims and menacing specters.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026

“Ghost in the Machine: The Old Zoo” is just that, a site-specific interactive experience in which specters come to life via our mobile phones.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 21, 2026

Pouting “But I have Global Entry!” as she settles into the waiting room with her fellow specters is just the beginning of her afterlife antics.

From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2024

The mysteries around Annie’s murder and the frozen scientists link up so beautifully to the tensions within Ennis that the continued sprinkling of specters, flashbacks and various uncanny events has gotten distracting.

From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2024

It was not enough; I saw the blank windows; and that was more terrible than the specters of memory with their piercing gaze; that absence; those sheets of glass that held no image but transmission.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

Related Words

• demon
• shadow