wraith
Americannoun
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an apparition of a living person supposed to portend their death.
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a visible spirit.
noun
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the apparition of a person living or thought to be alive, supposed to appear around the time of his death
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a ghost or any apparition
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an insubstantial copy of something
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something pale, thin, and lacking in substance, such as a column of smoke
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of wraith
First recorded in 1505–15; originally Scots; origin uncertain
Explanation
If you have a vision of your grandfather just before he passes away, you have seen a wraith or a ghostly image. Wraith can also mean something thin, wispy, or ghost-like. You could call a wisp of smoke rising from a chimney a wraith or you could say that a sick aunt had been reduced to a wraith — a thin, ghostly, figure. Sometimes it's even a compliment, which shows how we idealize wraith-like fashion models. Wraith is of unknown origins, and there aren't any other words related to it.
Vocabulary lists containing wraith
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The Grim Reader: Wicked Words of Grave Importance for Halloween
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Uncanny, Creepy, or Downright Scary: Words For Halloween
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A former New Yorker uprooted to the countryside, Grace suffers from a postpartum depression that makes her feel like like a dreary wraith.
From Los Angeles Times • May 23, 2025
The original Beetlejuice, which starred Michael Keaton as an obnoxious wraith hired to help scare away a house's pretentious inhabitants, was released back in 1988.
From BBC • Dec. 24, 2023
Tom Skerritt moves through “East of the Mountains” like a hobbled wraith.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 21, 2021
For years, Mr. Guzmán remained a wraith, invisible to authorities whose efforts to capture him proved futile.
From Washington Post • Sep. 11, 2021
Through a blur of tears, she watched him go, stealing like a wraith in the night towards the river that had brought him.
From "The Incredible Journey" by Sheila Burnford
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
