spook means A ghost or phantom. It carries an Arena rating of 1510, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, spook ranks #351 of 17,123 for Most Malleable Words, #979 of 17,116 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,359 of 17,115 for Most Vivid Words, #2,626 of 17,130 for Most Ingenious Words.
spook is pronounced /spuːk/.
Why “spook” is a great word
A ghost or phantom; to frighten or startle. Borrowed from Dutch spook ("ghost"), from Middle Dutch spooc ("spook, ghost"), from a common Germanic source; first recorded in American English 1795–1805. Unlike "ghost," which names a spirit, often mournful or neutral, or "startle," which suggests a brief, sharp surprise, to be spooked is to be unnerved by an active, unsettling presence—the cold prickle of the uncanny. It is the horse that shies at nothing visible, the shape that resolves from darkness into something just beyond recognition, the silence after a phone rings in an empty house. It is the lingering certainty that you are not alone in a still room—the primal shiver at the edge of our well-lit world.
Etymology
Borrowed from Dutch spook (“ghost”), from Middle Dutch spooc (“spook, ghost”). Cognate with Middle Low German spôk, spûk (“apparition, ghost”), Middle High German gespük (“a haunting”), German Spuk, Danish spøge (“to haunt”), Swedish spöke (“ghost”).
noun
- A ghost or phantom.e.g.“The building was haunted by a couple of spooks.”
- A hobgoblin.
- A scare or fright.e.g.“The big spider gave me a spook.”
- An undercover agent, spy, or intelligence analyst.e.g.“From Ian Fleming to John Le Carre - authors have long been fascinated by the world of espionage. But, asks the BBC’s Gordon Corera, what do real life spooks make of fictional spies?”
- A black person.e.g.“Some won't take spooks—hell, don't make no difference to me.”
- A metaphysical manifestation; an artificial distinction or construct.e.g.“He who is infatuated with Man leaves persons out of account so far as that infatuation extends, and floats in an ideal, sacred interest. Man, you see, is not a person, but an ideal, a spook.”
- A psychiatrist.e.g.“Commonly, the surgeons view nonsurgeons with disdain. The most disdain is directed toward the “shrinks” or the “spooks,” as the psychiatrists are called.”
- A player who engages in hole carding by attempting to glimpse the dealer's hole card when the dealer checks under an ace or a 10 to see if a blackjack is present.
verb
- To frighten or make nervous (especially by startling).e.g.“The hunters were spooked when the black cat crossed their path. The movement in the bushes spooked the deer and they ran.”
- To become frightened (by something startling).e.g.“The deer spooked at the sound of the dogs.”
- To haunt.
Words closest in meaning
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