Spectre

How to spell spectre

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce spectre

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does spectre mean?

1. nounA ghost or apparition, or a frightening prospect that haunts the mind.

Spectre in a sentence

• The abandoned hospital was rumoured to hide a pale spectre in its corridors.

• The spectre of redundancy hung over every meeting that month.

Where does spectre come from?

Language of origin: French

This word travelled into English from the French spectre, which the French had taken from the Latin spectrum, meaning 'an appearance' or 'an apparition'. That Latin noun was built on the verb specere, 'to look at' or 'to behold', the same root that gives us 'spectacle', 'inspect' and 'spectator'. English adopted spectre in the early 1600s to mean a ghost or a frightening visible image, and it soon broadened to cover any haunting or menacing prospect, as in the spectre of unemployment. The scientific word 'spectrum' is simply the same Latin word borrowed directly and untouched, which is why the two look like cousins. The British and Canadian spelling keeps the French '-re' ending, while American English reshuffles it to 'specter'; that 'tre' versus 'ter' swap is the whole spelling trap.

How the word is built

• spectr- (from Latin spectrum: appearance, apparition)
• -e (French-influenced ending)

British and American spelling

Spectre is the British spelling. American English spells it specter.