From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishspectrespec‧tre British English, specter American English /ˈspektə $ -ər/ noun 1 → the spectre of something2 [countable] literaryALRF a ghost
Examples from the Corpus
spectre• Another spectre of his too-vivid memory rose up to tempt him.• Loneliness flooded her like the bone-chilling spectre of the damned.• Once firmly embarked on the slow-growth road, the United States can not avoid the ominous spectre of social and economic decay.• And the spectre of money laundering looms.• But the spectre of delivering a speech brown-nosing the teachers jammed her imagination.• The attack has raised the spectre of another war between ice-cream operators in Glasgow.• The prospect of such telecoms competition raises the spectre of intervention by government or the courts.• The cultural move from an autonomous and independent sculpture back to the public sphere inevitably raises the spectre of popular culture.• They say that the spectres of the murdered children walk through the grounds at night.• The spectre is reputed to be that of Frances Culpepper, daughter of Lord John Freschville. 