Other forms: spectres
A spectre is a ghost, especially a frightening one. A pale spectre, the spectre at the window.
The literal sense is literary and rare. What is common — and it is very common — is the figurative one: the spectre of something means a feared possibility hanging over a situation. The spectre of inflation, the spectre of another lockdown, raise the spectre of. That construction is standard in news and political writing and is worth learning whole. Note the spelling: spectre in British English, specter in American, and the adjective spectral, which means ghostly.
1nounspectreA ghost, especially a frightening one.
“A spectre is said to walk the top corridor.”
synonyms: ghost, phantom, apparition
2nounfearedA feared possibility hanging over a situation.
“The spectre of redundancy hung over the whole department.”
spectre is a ghost, or a feared prospect.
Also accepted in games: specter
Proto-Indo-European
*speḱ-
Latin
spectrum — appearance, apparition
Middle French
spectre
English
specter
English, today
spectre
specter comes from Middle French spectre, from Latin spectrum (“appearance, apparition”). a doublet of spectrum.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA