specter

Noun

specter (plural specters)

1. (US) A ghostly apparition, a phantom.
   • A specter haunted the cemetery at the old Vasquez manor.
   • Nevertheleſſe, they which ſhould ſee thoſe Iſles thus to moove in this manner, not knowing before that the ſame were naturall: they would entertaine many and diverſe apprehenſions in their fantaſie, & would imagine that they ſawe a thing very ſtrange and prodigious, and ſuch as did very neere...1605, Peter de Loier [i.e., Pierre Le Loyer], translated by [Zachary Jones], “The many things being meerely Naturall are taken by the Sight or Hearing being deceived, for Specters and things...

   Synonyms:

   wraith, spook

2. (US, figuratively) A threatening mental image; an unpleasant prospect
   • The specter of an election-vote recount is this year's political bogeyman.
   • A specter is haunting Europe — the specter of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies.1848, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, translated by Samuel Moore, The Communist Manifesto
3. (US) Any of certain species of dragonfly of the genus Boyeria, family Aeshnidae.
4. (US) Any of various species of Asian danaid butterflies of the genus Idea, family Nymphalidae.
   • The large and handsome spectre-butterfly, Hestia durvillei; the pale-winged peacock butterfly, Drusilla catops; and the most brilliant and wonderful of the clear-winged moths, Cocytia durvillei, were especially interesting, as well, as several little "blues," equalling in brilliancy and beauty...1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 199