Word.ws English Dictionary

poltergeist

/ˈpɒl.tə.ɡaɪst/US/ˈpoʊl.tɚˌɡaɪst/

poltergeist noun: an unseen ghost which makes noises and causes disruption, especially by causing physical objects to move or fly about.

Noun

poltergeist (plural poltergeists or poltergeister)

  1. An unseen ghost which makes noises and causes disruption, especially by causing physical objects to move or fly about.
    • A poltergeist haunts the house by moving objects around, making chain-rattling noises and throwing things.
    • The chapel is haunted by a demonic poltergeist.

Proper noun capitalized: Poltergeist

Poltergeist

  1. A planet in Lich star system, Milky Way Galaxy, Virgo constellation; One of the pair of planets that were the first exoplanets which were discovered. A planet in orbit of the pulsar Lich (PSR B1257+12)
    Synonyms:
    PSR B1257+12 B, PSR B1257+12

poltergeist meaning in Tamil, Arabic and Vietnamese

poltergeist in Tamil

தேவதை

poltergeist in Arabic

disruptive ghost
رُوح شَرِيرَة rūḥ šarīra

poltergeist in Vietnamese

disruptive ghost
yêu tinh

Examples of poltergeist in a sentence

  • "Perhaps even a small poltergeist might come your way.1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html)...
  • I risk becoming nothing more than a common poltergeist wallowing in regrets and introspection and other terrible things.2013, Kazerad, Aggy: Approach, in: Prequel -or- Making a Cat Cry: The Adventure (webcomic), November 22 2013

Synonyms of poltergeist

  • PSR B1257+12 B
  • PSR B1257+12

Forms of poltergeist

pluralpoltergeists
pluralpoltergeister

Plural of poltergeist: poltergeists or poltergeister

Origin of poltergeist

Unadapted borrowing from German Poltergeist, from poltern (“to rumble”) + Geist (“ghost”), cognates with English boulder and ghost, respectively.

From poltergeist, the supernatural entity. From orbiting a neutron star, a "dead" star, a star that no longer contains a fusion core, but which is radiating away its stored energy.

Words formed from poltergeist

Questions about poltergeist

What does poltergeist mean?
Poltergeist means an unseen ghost which makes noises and causes disruption, especially by causing physical objects to move or fly about.
What is poltergeist in Tamil?
Poltergeist in Tamil is தேவதை. See Poltergeist meaning in Tamil.
How do you use poltergeist in a sentence?
"Perhaps even a small poltergeist might come your way.
What part of speech is poltergeist?
Poltergeist can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce poltergeist?
Poltergeist is pronounced /ˈpoʊl.tɚˌɡaɪst/ (US).
What is the plural of poltergeist?
The plural of poltergeist is poltergeists.

Words near poltergeist in the dictionary

  1. polt-foot
  2. polt-footed
  3. Poltava
  4. Poltera
  5. poltergeese
  6. poltergeist
  7. poltergeister
  8. poltergeistic
  9. poltergeistism
  10. poltergeistlike
  11. poltergeists

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: poltergeist (page history and authors); Poltergeist (page history and authors); poltergeist (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-poltergeist.wav.

Cite this entry: “poltergeist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/poltergeist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.