specter

 Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5++朗文当代英语 5++LDOCE 5++朗文 5++spec·ter /ˈspektə $ -ər/ noun [countable]  x-refthe American spelling of spectre spectre 的美式拼法

Examples from the Corpus

specter• How does a specter go about making his confession?• I wish you could have seen the faces of the jury as the awful specter of the future unfolded before them.• They figure this was a puritanical overreaction to a handful of innocent pictures and claim it raises the chilling specter of censorship.• The buildings were only specters glimpsed through the thick white veils the air had become.• Opponents painted a more apocalyptic picture, warning of foreign landowners and even invoking the specter of civil war.• Failure in Chechnya raises the specter that other independent-minded regions could become problems once again.• Potentially problematic was the specter of defense witnesses placing John Doe No. 2 in the conspiracy and confusing jurors.• The specter, north and south, of the black face, real and corporeal, owing nothing to burnt cork.Origin specter (1600-1700) French spectre, from Latin spectrum; → SPECTRUM

spec·ter nounChineseSyllable  

spectre American Corpus of spelling the

specter

I

spec‧ter /ˈspektə $ -ər/ noun [countable]the American spelling of spectre

II

spec‧tre British English, specter American English /ˈspektə $ -ər/ noun
1. the spectre of something something that people are afraid of because it may affect them badly:
    The recession is again raising the spectre of unemployment.
2. [countable] literary a ghost
     

THESAURUS

   ▪ ghost the spirit of a dead person that some people think they can feel or see in a place: His ghost is believed to haunt the house.
   ▪ spirit a creature without a physical body, such as an angel or ghost: evil spirits | the spirit world
   ▪ apparition an image of a dead person that someone sees suddenly for a short time: He claimed to have seen an apparition in the church.
   ▪ poltergeist a ghost that people cannot see, which throws things or moves things around: The house was haunted by a poltergeist that makes things move around all by themselves, sometimes quite big things like beds or wardrobes.
   ▪ spook informal a ghost: I’m not scared of spooks.
   ▪ phantom literary a frightening and unclear image of a dead person: They had seen phantoms gliding on the surface of the water.
   ▪ spectre British English, specter American English literary a ghost, especially a frightening one: She had looked like a spectre. | The following night, the spectre appeared again.