Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Chiefly British Variant of specter.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. See specter.
Wiktionary
- n. alternative spelling of specter.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. See specter.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a mental representation of some haunting experience
- n. a ghostly appearing figure
Examples
“Still, as his career continues, Dynamo finds that a certain spectre of the past keeps popping up …”
Hero History: Dynamo | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News
“In the dark of night, a chilling sexual spectre is making its way through the house, hovering over the sleeping girl and terrorizing her fragile mother.”
“A spectre is haunting The New York Times Company — the spectre of arithmetic.”
“What a monstrous spectre is this man, this disease of the agglutinated dust, lifting alternate feet or lying drugged with slumber; killing, feeding, growing, bringing forth small copies of himself; grown up with hair like grass, fitted with eyes that glitter in his face; a thing to set children screaming.”
“That cult classic television series dealt with a reporter who, in investigating a series of bizarre murders, would always come across some supernatural spectre from the past.”
Graham Masterton: Ghosts (and demons) of the past « Skulls in the Stars
“How I've missed Scoop after all these years I can't imagine and in this edition it is followed by The Loved One, another spectre from the era of Form Vc at Nonsuch Girls, who now I think on it had an odd and very quirky shared sense in humour and books.”
“subterranean folk" who dwelt there, and whom he described as a spectre herd, with little, ugly, pale, or bluish human shapes, dotted in grey, and with black head-gear.”
“The fact the spectre is a dead man adds a bitter-sweet tone to the scene that just made the easy camaraderie seem even warmer.”
“This spectre, which is profoundly believed in by the villagers, had not been seen for at least two years before the murder, but she made a reappearance a night or two after the crime, and is supposed to have been seen frequently ever since.”
“At that same instant the iron door opened wide, and between its receding wings stood a spectre -- a spectre was the only name for it, as it had no resemblance to anything human.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘spectre’.
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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ghost
This is Ghost List 2 ( the kind that go 'boo!' ) :P
( open list )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/macabrephantom, spectral, specter, spectre, spooky, poltergeist, haunt, spirit, banshee, cryptic, shadow, phantasm and 311 more...
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bling
( open list, visual, light, descriptive )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/dynamic
even more:
sparkle, shine, gleam, glisten, shimmer, gloss, pearly, opalescent, iridescent, prismatic, multifaceted, glow and 35 more... -
Words Covered in Faery Dust (S)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
sabian symbols, saffron, sagacious, sage, salamander, sally lunn, salmon, salsify, salt water taffy, samhain, sand dollar, sandalwood and 270 more...
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AbraxasZugzwang's Words
atavism, abraxas, sisyphean, frust, fetus-in-fetu, arhythmically, queef, epidemiology, abecedarian, troglodyte, chiaroscuro, philology and 631 more...
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katiad's Words
exquisite, obnoxious, noxious, extravaganza, whirlwind, whirling, wild, spinster, existential, chaos, zephyr, blasphemy and 310 more...
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Fictional beasties
elf, gnome, dwarf, sprite, troll, fairy, nymph, imp, brownie, sasquatch, yeti, wookiee and 574 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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pretty phrase
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librarygoblin's words
crystal, ghost, mist, snow, labyrinth, citadel, tomb, mystery, arcane, conundrum, echo, dynamo and 389 more...
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norrell's Words
hush, dove, euphoria, nebulae, bryn mawr, darling, phoenix, nape, cream, butterscotch, cosmos, frost and 190 more...
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The Pogues
transmetropolitan, lecher, queer, shite, whore, bastard, spew, bloody, waxie's dargle, farthing, pint, races and 91 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2008 more...
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Negasonic Teenage Warhead
"Wow, we really have run out of names."
Codenames of superheroes, supervillains, etc. (that are actual words, or unique spellings of actual words).rogue, gambit, wolverine, storm, cyclops, phoenix, cypher, beast, berzerker, toad, avalanche, magma and 125 more...
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Setting the Scene: Dark and Dreary
Words that lend to the dark and dreary atmosphere of gothic literature.
dark, dreary, shroud, shrouded, veiled, skeleton, skeletal, dead, death, murky, gloomy, lugubrious and 274 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for spectre.

john “The Phantom II was briefly given the designation F-110A and the name 'Spectre' by the USAF, but neither title was used.�? More on Wikipedia. Dec 30, 2008