Word.ws English Dictionary

knocking spirit

knocking spirit noun: a poltergeist.

Noun

knocking spirit (plural knocking spirits)

  1. (German) A poltergeist.
    • When he was asked if he knew the Kobolds and Knocking-Spirits (Polter Geister), he answered, "What have these to do with me? They are the Devil's spectres, and I do not belong to them."1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 52

Forms of knocking spirit

pluralknocking spirits

Origin of knocking spirit

Calque of German Poltergeist.

Questions about knocking spirit

What does knocking spirit mean?
Knocking spirit means a poltergeist.
What part of speech is knocking spirit?
Knocking spirit is a noun.
What is the plural of knocking spirit?
The plural of knocking spirit is knocking spirits.

Words near knocking spirit in the dictionary

  1. knocking someone into the middle of next week
  2. knocking someone off their perch
  3. knocking someone over with a feather
  4. knocking someone's socks off
  5. knocking someone's wind out
  6. knocking spirit
  7. knocking spirits
  8. knocking the ball out of the park
  9. knocking the corners off
  10. knocking the daylight out of
  11. knocking the daylights out of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knocking spirit (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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