wraith

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“
She looked like a small white wraith--do you know what a wraith is?"

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun An apparition of a living person that appears as a portent just before that person's death.
  2. noun The ghost of a dead person.
  3. noun Something shadowy and insubstantial.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • The substantial and ofttimes corpulent ghost or spirit of the real stage has been succeeded by an intangible wraith, as transparent and unsubstantial as may be demanded in the best book of fairy tales--more double exposure. —  Edison, His Life and Inventions
  • The girl was as slight as a wraith, yet the gentle curves outlined beneath the fabric of her demure nightdress were unmistakably those of a woman. —  Teresa Medeiros - Thief of Hearts
  • Silent as a wraith, I flowed through plank walls and into a room where, Spink and Epiny, shared a bed, their child nestled between them. —  Robin Hobb
  • The only proof it wasn't a wraith was the substantial plopping of feet when they hit the floor But there was no solid chunking. —  041 - The Black Spot
  • As quietly as a wraith, I slipped out of my bunk and tiptoed in my bare feet to the cockpit, carefully shutting the hatches of the sleeping compartment and the galley, so there'd by no noise to waken Sam. —  AnalogSF,June2003
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

specter ·  wisp ·  sprite ·  hobgoblin ·  dryad ·  figment
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Origin unknown.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. apparently an altered form due to some confusion of the dial. warth, an apparition; supposed to have been orig. a guardian spirit, from Icelandic vörth (genitive varthar), a ward, guardian; cf. Norwegian varde, a beacon, pile of stones, vardyvle, a guardian or attendant spirit said to go before or follow a man, also considered as an omen or a boding spirit: see ward.
 

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/reɪθ/
by American Heritage

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