as in ghouls
a female spirit in Irish and Scottish stories who cries loudly to warn people that someone is going to die soon
claimed to have heard the terrifying wail of a banshee
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Recent Examples of banshees
His bronc riders look more like pietàs in mud; his barrel racers scream like banshees on horseback.
—
Casey Cep, New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2025
Casey Cep, New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for banshees
Noun
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Created by a number of its stars, Ghosts originated on the BBC in 2019, following a group of ghouls from different historical periods haunting a country house while sharing the house with its new living occupants.—
Max Goldbart,
Deadline,
25 Mar. 2026
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Now working as a stocker, Ash accidentally unleashes undead ghouls after reading from the Necronomicon, forcing him to take up his chainsaw yet again to save humanity from the Deadites.—
Kevin Jacobsen,
Entertainment Weekly,
25 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Sometimes, those personal demons will be the death of you.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
30 Apr. 2026
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Still overcome with his own grief, Creasy must tuck his own demons away in an effort to care for a teenage girl whose life has suddenly been thrown into chaos.—
Aramide Tinubu,
Variety,
30 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Such a designation, evidently, would save agents from wasting time chasing phantoms.—
Adam Ciralsky,
Vanity Fair,
19 Mar. 2026
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Just in time for Halloween, the sonic phantoms that have long plagued the ladies of The View have seemingly possessed inanimate objects over on the Live With Kelly and Mark set.—
Joey Nolfi,
Entertainment Weekly,
28 Oct. 2025
Noun
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By the final showdown, the production has made use of every bit of stage space, with sensational flying sequences (choreographed by Lauren Yalango-Grant and Christopher Cree Grant) that allow the vampires to float, hover, and—in one especially intense moment—dive from that bridge.—
Emily Nussbaum,
New Yorker,
30 Apr. 2026
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Beyond that, non-phantom, non-Dracula vampires aren’t terribly over-exposed in the Broadway genre.—
Chris Jones,
Chicago Tribune,
27 Apr. 2026
Noun
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That doesn’t mean the ghosts here aren’t scary.—
Jon Dolan,
Rolling Stone,
22 Apr. 2026
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Per the log line, in House of Stassi, Schroeder is stepping back into the spotlight to redefine her place in pop culture — but staying on top means confronting the ghosts of her past and a chaotic inner circle with a talent for disrupting her life.—
Katie Campione,
Deadline,
22 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The earliest depictions of slavery were already crawling with the terrible proceedings the Gothic tends to depict, from bloody whippings to family curses to the wrathful wraiths of the slain enslaved.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
20 Feb. 2026
Noun
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There certainly seem to be apparitions in this music, some presence apart from the four musicians and the throngs of fans, which is intensified by the visceral collision of so many sounds.—
Stephen M. Deusner,
Pitchfork,
27 Apr. 2026
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Those themes are alive here, as the ghosts who visit Depp’s Scrooge are intricate, terrifying apparitions not suitable for the whole family.—
Brent Lang,
Variety,
16 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The yarns of Joe Turner interweave gradually, everyday chit-chat, bargaining, and flirtation interlocking over time with threads of mysticism — both the ghosts of a brutal history and the ancestral spirits that stand protective and defiant like a phalanx of angels with shining swords.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
26 Apr. 2026
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The voyage’s final night includes a spirits tasting under the Lyngen Alps at Aurora Spirit, the world’s northernmost distillery, and accommodation in its fjord-side cabins.—
Karen Gardiner,
Travel + Leisure,
25 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Banshees.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/banshees. Accessed 2 May. 2026.
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