# specter
## English
### Alternative forms

* spectre (Commonwealth English)

### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /ˈspɛktɚ/, enPR: spĕkʹtər
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈspɛktə/, enPR: spĕkʹtə
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛktə(ɹ)

### Noun

specter (plural specters) (American spelling)
* A ghostly apparition, a phantom. [from 17th c.]
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:ghost
    A specter haunted the cemetery at the old Vasquez manor.
** 1605, Peter de Loier [i.e., Pierre Le Loyer], translated by [Zachary Jones], “The many things being meerely Naturall are taken by the Sight or Hearing being deceived, for Specters and things prodigious”, in A Treatise of Specters or Straunge Sights, Visions and Apparitions Appearing Sensibly vnto Men. […], London: […] Val[entine] S[immes] for Mathew Lownes, →OCLC, folio 62, verso:Nevertheleſſe, they which ſhould ſee thoſe Iſles thus to moove in this manner, not knowing before that the ſame were naturall: they would entertaine many and diverſe apprehenſions in their fantaſie, & would imagine that they ſawe a thing very ſtrange and prodigious, and ſuch as did very neere approach to the nature of ſome Specter [translating spectre] and viſion.
* (figuratively) A threatening mental image; an unpleasant prospect [from 18th c.]
** 1848, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, translated by Samuel Moore, The Communist Manifesto: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.
** 2022 September 27, Mark Landler, “Truss Takes a Bold Economic Gamble. Will It Sink Her Government?”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:Already, the specter of higher interest rates was causing the housing market to seize up.
** 2024 August 14, “Thai court removes PM Srettha Thavisin from office over cabinet appointment”, in france24.com‎:Thailand's Constitutional Court on Wednesday dismissed Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin for appointing to his cabinet a former lawyer who served jail time, raising the spectre of more political upheaval and a reset of the governing alliance.
** 2025 February 25, Linda Feldmann, “How Trump skirts checks and balances unlike any modern-day US president”, in The Christian Science Monitor:Instead of three co-equal branches acting as a check on each other, power has become increasingly concentrated over the years in the White House – a trend that is now being supercharged under Mr. Trump in ways that, to critics, raise the specter of authoritarianism.
* (entomology) Any of certain species of dragonfly of the genus Boyeria, family Aeshnidae. [from 20th c.]

#### Derived terms

* Brocken specter
* Macleay's spectre
* mountain specter
* raise the specter
* specter at the feast
* specter bat
* specter candle
* specter shrimp
* spectral

#### Translations

Albanian: abe (sq) f, stihi (sq) f, hije (sq) f
Arabic: شَبَح m (šabaḥ), شَبْح m (šabḥ)
Belarusian: пры́від (be) m (prývid)
Bulgarian: призрак (bg) m (prizrak), привиде́ние (bg) n (prividénie)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 幽靈 / 幽灵 (zh) (yōulíng), 鬼魂 (zh) (guǐhún)
Czech: strašidlo (cs) n, přízrak m
Egyptian: (ꜣḫ)
Esperanto: fantomo, apero
Finnish: kummitus (fi)
French: spectre (fr)
German: Gespenst (de) n, Spuk (de) m
Greek: φάντασμα (el) (fántasma)
Ancient: φάσμα n (phásma), φάντασμα n (phántasma)
Hindi: भूत (hi) m (bhūt)
Irish: arracht m
Italian: spettro (it) m, fantasma (it) m
Japanese: 幽霊 (ja) (ゆうれい, yūrei), 亡霊 (ja) (ぼうれい, bōrei)
Korean: 유령(幽靈) (ko) (yuryeong)
Latin: spectrum n, phasma (la) n
Old English: scucca m
Persian: شبح (fa) (šabah)
Polish: widmo (pl) n, zjawa (pl) f
Portuguese: espectro (pt) m, aparição (pt) f
Romanian: spectru (ro) n, fantomă (ro) f, fantasmă (ro) f
Russian: при́зрак (ru) m (prízrak), привиде́ние (ru) n (prividénije), фанто́м (ru) m (fantóm)
Scottish Gaelic: sgàile f, tannasg m, taibhse m or f
Spanish: espectro (es) m
Sumerian: 𒄇 (/⁠gidim⁠/), 𒆤 (/⁠lil⁠/), 𒋝𒋝 (/⁠sisig⁠/)
Swedish: vålnad (sv), spöke (sv) n
Ukrainian: при́вид m (prývyd)
Urdu: بهوت m (bhūt)
Vietnamese: bóng ma (vi), ma (vi) :

### Anagrams

* Sceptre, recepts, respect, scepter, sceptre, spectre

## Latin
### Verb

specter
* first-person singular present passive subjunctive of spectō