ectoplasm

Noun

ectoplasm (countable and uncountable, plural ectoplasms)

1. A visible substance believed to emanate from the body of a spiritualistic medium during communication with the dead.
   • He saw again clearly enough[…]the doctor’s consulting room in the Avenida de la Revolución, visited for some drunken reason in the early hours of the morning, macabre with its pictures of ancient Spanish surgeons, their goat faces rising queerly from ruffs resembling ectoplasm, roaring with...1947, Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, page 137
   • Watching as the woman lifted her skirts and flung out ectoplasm, expelled it into a bowl, then brandished it around at her audience wildly.2021, Jenni Fagan, Luckenbooth, William Heinemann, page 131
2. An immaterial or ethereal substance, especially the transparent corporeal presence of a spirit or ghost.
   • Then came some hollow groanings from inside the cabinet. The Spiritualists sat up expectantly. "That's ectoplasm," said Ogilvy. "It always causes pain on emission."1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019
3. The outer granule-free layer of cytoplasm.