wraith

American  

[reyth] / reɪθ /

noun

• wraiths
  plural

1. an apparition of a living person supposed to portend their death.

2. a visible spirit.

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wraith British  

/ reɪθ /

noun

1. the apparition of a person living or thought to be alive, supposed to appear around the time of his death

2. a ghost or any apparition

3. an insubstantial copy of something

4. something pale, thin, and lacking in substance, such as a column of smoke

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• wraithlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• wraiths
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wraith wraiths

“Ulysses can fight, but it’s not about him becoming this kind of revengeful wraith moving through the movie dispatching people. It’s action, but with empathy.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2026

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

This Diana, a pale wraith who clutches at her children like she needs them to keep her tethered, is a bird in a luxurious trap; we see the eating disorders, the mental illness, the misery.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 4, 2021

“In the final series of swift lifts, her foot seemed barely to touch the floor. It was the image that others have never matched, the airborne wraith who seems to fly out of a lithograph.”

From Washington Post ● May 30, 2021

Martial squads patrol the streets in force, but I avoid them easily in my black dress, blending into the night like a wraith.

From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir

The protagonists are a couple of paranormal investigators, Red and Antea, who are trying to clear the tormented wraiths out of a haunted settlement.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 11, 2024

"All my energy has been well and truly sucked out of me like I've been kissed by a dementor," Paolo says referring to the soul-consuming wraiths in the Harry Potter stories.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2023

She saw her mother, shrouded in a dark covering of wraiths, bones and melting faces, and felt her overwhelming grief.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 2, 2023

The tales boil down to the problem of balancing empathy with self-assertion—of both practicing kindness and expressing your own needs, and all while the people around you are behaving like wraiths or aliens.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 17, 2018

It’s going to be a sea of wraiths we’re fighting.

From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir