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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

spec·ter

Audio Help [spek-ter] Pronunciation Key

–noun

1.	a visible incorporeal spirit, esp. one of a terrifying nature; ghost; phantom; apparition.

2.	some object or source of terror or dread: the specter of disease or famine.

Also, especially British, spectre.

[Origin: 1595–1605; < L spectrum; see spectrum

]

—Synonyms 1. shade. See ghost.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

spec·ter Audio Help (spěk'tər) Pronunciation Key
n.

A ghostly apparition; a phantom.
A haunting or disturbing image or prospect: the terrible specter of nuclear war.

[French spectre, from Latin spectrum, appearance, apparition; see spectrum.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
specter

1605, from Fr. spectre "an image, figure, ghost" (16c.), from L. spectrum "appearance, vision, apparition" (see spectrum). Spectral is attested from 1815 in the sense of "ghostly" (first recorded in Shelley); 1832 in sense of "of or pertaining to a spectrum."

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

specter
noun
1.	a mental representation of some haunting experience; "he looked like he had seen a ghost"; "it aroused specters from his past" [syn: ghost]
2.	a ghostly appearing figure; "we were unprepared for the apparition that confronted us" [syn: apparition]