vampire

US/ˈvæm.paɪ.ə(ɹ)/

vampire noun: a mythological creature (usually humanoid and undead) said to feed on the blood or life energy of the living.

Image: Berthe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

vampire (plural vampires)

A mythological creature (usually humanoid and undead) said to feed on the blood or life energy of the living.
- Bram Stoker's novel Dracula built on centuries-old stories of vampires and also encouraged new growth of the mythology.
- [I]n the Village of Medreyga in Hungary, certain dead Bodies (call'd there Vampyres) had kill'd several Persons by sucking out all their Blood: That Arnold Paul, an Heyduke, having kill'd four Persons after he was dead, his Body was taken up 40 Days after, which bled at the Nose, Mouth and Ears...1732 May 20, The London Journal, page 76, column 1
Synonyms:

nosferatu, lamia
(colloquial, humorous, usually) A person with habits traditionally ascribed to (literal) vampires, such as heliophobia, being a night owl, having pale skin, and so on.
- Near-synonyms: heliophobe, goth
- Somehow I doubt that Kelly will want to go surfing with us — she's such a vampire that she might recoil from the sun, lol!
Synonyms:

heliophobe, goth
(colloquial, offensive) A person with the medical condition porphyria cutanea tarda, colloquially known as vampirism, with effects such as photosensitivity and brownish-red stained teeth.
A blood-sucking bat; vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus)

Synonyms:

vampire bat
(derogatory, figuratively) A person who drains one's time, energy, money, etc.
- emotional vampire
- You have to be careful what you tell her, because she's such a vampire for drama.
Synonyms:

hemovore, hematophagous
(dated) A vamp: a seductive woman who exploits men.
- "What followed this decision was exactly what we had expected: Mr. Fox, realizing that the public was tiring of Theda Bara in vampire roles, announced that he would star her in a production of Romeo and Juliet," she illustrated.2004, David W. Menefee, The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Era, page 4
(US, slang) A medical technician who works with patients' blood; especially, a phlebotomist.
- Only one technician in the hospital lab, in all we have encountered, uses it. […] Eric makes no complaints other than those directed at the vampires. Brenda and I do.1992, Terry Pringle, This is the Child
- "I draw blood from patients, and then I take it back to the lab and analyze it. Sometimes, the vampires do all the sticks, that is to say the lab assistants do all the blood collections." He grinned. "We have our own language at the lab."2000, Tracie Peterson, Colorado Wings, page 373
(US, slang) Synonym of anti-ship missile (ASM), particularly an incoming hostile one.
- Vampire. Vampire. Vampire. Battle stations.
Synonyms:

anti-ship missile

Verb

vampire (third-person singular simple present vampires, present participle vampiring, simple past and past participle vampired)

(figuratively, transitive) To drain of energy or resources.

vampire meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

vampire in Hindi

mythological creature: रक्तचूषक raktacūṣak, रक्तशोषक raktaśoṣak, रक्तजतूक raktajtūk, रक्तपिपासु raktapipāsu, रक्तपिशाच raktapiśāc, रक्तपिशाचिनी raktapiśācinī

vampire in Tamil

mythological creature: ரத்தக் காட்டேரி rattak kāṭṭēri
bat: வவ்வால் vavvāl

vampire in Marathi

mythological creature: व्हॅम्पायर vhĕmpāyar

vampire in Urdu

mythological creature: خُون آشام xūn āśām, وَیمْپائِر vaimpāir

More languagesFewer languages

vampire in Bengali: ভ্যাম্পায়ার bhêmpaẏar, পিশাচ piśac
vampire in Telugu: రక్త పిశాచి rakta piśāci
vampire in Malayalam: വാമ്പയർ, വാമ്പയർക്ക്
vampire in Kannada: ರಕ್ತಪಿಶಾಚಿ
vampire in Punjabi: ਪਿਸ਼ਾਚ piśāc
vampire in Gujarati: વેમ્પાયર
vampire in Sinhala: පිසාචයින් pisācayin
vampire in Nepali: भ्याम्पायरलाई
vampire in Tagalog: bampira
vampire in Arabic: مَصَّاص دِمَاء maṣṣāṣ dimāʔ, مَصَّاصَة دِمَاء maṣṣāṣat dimāʔ
vampire in Malay: puntianak
vampire in Indonesian: vampir
vampire in Thai: แวมไพร์ wɛm-paai, ผีดูดเลือด pǐi-dùut-lʉ̂ʉat, ผีดิบ pǐi-dìp
vampire in Vietnamese: ma cà rồng, dơi hút máu
vampire in Myanmar: သွေးစုပ်ဖုတ်ကောင် swe:cuphputkaung, သွေးစုပ်လင်းဆွဲ swe:cuplang:hcwai:
Kashmiri: خونہٕ أشیٖن khōnhụ ạśīn

Examples of vampire in a sentence

He was scared stiff, like a deer in the headlights, by the vampire walking toward him.
After the vampire bit me, I passed from life to undeath.
He wore garlic to ward off vampires.

All 40 example sentences with vampire

Synonyms of vampire

All synonyms of vampire

Forms of vampire

Noun
plural	vampires
alternative form	vampyre
alternative form	wampyr
Verb
third-person singular present	vampires
present participle	vampiring
past participle	vampired
past	vampired

Plural of vampire: vampires

Origin of vampire

From French vampire, from German Vampir, via Hungarian from a Slavic word, probably Serbo-Croatian vàmpīr /ва̀мпӣр, from Proto-Slavic *ǫpyrь, further possibly from Proto-Turkic *ōpur (“glutton, witch, evil spirit”), or from native construction. Doublet of dhampir and oupire.

Phrases with vampire

4 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with vampire

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about vampire

What does vampire mean?: Vampire means a mythological creature (usually humanoid and undead) said to feed on the blood or life energy of the living.
What is vampire in Hindi?: Vampire in Hindi is रक्तचूषक (raktacūṣak), रक्तशोषक (raktaśoṣak), रक्तजतूक (raktajtūk). See Vampire meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is vampire?: Vampire can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce vampire?: Vampire is pronounced /ˈvæm.paɪ.ə(ɹ)/ (US).
What is the plural of vampire?: The plural of vampire is vampires.

Words near vampire in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: vampire (page history and authors); vampire (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); vampire (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); vampire (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); vampire (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-vampire.ogg.

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