spectre

English

Etymology

From French spectre, from Latin spectrum (“appearance, apparition”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛktə(ɹ)

Noun

spectre (plural spectres)

1. British standard spelling of specter.

   The spectre is a ghost of a decapitated young man.

   • 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto

     A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies.

   • 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], Shirley. A Tale. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC:

     To this extenuated spectre, perhaps, a crumb is not thrown once a year, but when ahungered and athirst to famine—when all humanity has forgotten the dying tenant of a decaying house—Divine Mercy remembers the mourner […]

Anagrams

• Sceptre, recepts, respect, scepter, sceptre, specter

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French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin spectrum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spɛktʁ/

• Audio:

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Noun

spectre m (plural spectres)

1. ghost, specter

   Dans la nuit, il vit un spectre apparaître. ― In the night, he saw a specter appear.

2. spectrum

   Le spectre de la lumière blanche est un spectre continu. ― The spectrum of white light is a continuous spectrum.

Derived terms

• spectral

Further reading

• “spectre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• respect

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Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈspek.tre]

Noun

spectre n pl

1. plural of spectru