as in haunting
of, relating to, or suggestive of a ghost
They spotted a spectral figure in the window of the old abandoned house.
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Recent Examples of spectral
What starts as a spectral curiosity becomes a terrifying and growing presence with an insatiable hunger that begins to consume her life.
—
Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 9 Apr. 2026
Twenty years ago, critic Mark Fisher described Burial’s Untrue as a kind of sonic hauntology, a montage of fractured breakbeats, spectral vocal fragments, and crackle collapsing past and future into a single, diffuse texture.
—Keegan Brady, Rolling Stone, 25 Mar. 2026
And while the spectral profiles broadly fit, the observed temperatures and sheer brightness of LRDs hint at powerful winds that our current models for Supermassive Stars just don't fully capture yet.
—Paul Sutter, Space.com, 23 Mar. 2026
The emitters also demonstrated strong spectral stability, addressing a key limitation in earlier designs where blinking and photobleaching reduced performance.
—Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 20 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for spectral
Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 9 Apr. 2026
Twenty years ago, critic Mark Fisher described Burial’s Untrue as a kind of sonic hauntology, a montage of fractured breakbeats, spectral vocal fragments, and crackle collapsing past and future into a single, diffuse texture.
—Keegan Brady, Rolling Stone, 25 Mar. 2026
And while the spectral profiles broadly fit, the observed temperatures and sheer brightness of LRDs hint at powerful winds that our current models for Supermassive Stars just don't fully capture yet.
—Paul Sutter, Space.com, 23 Mar. 2026
The emitters also demonstrated strong spectral stability, addressing a key limitation in earlier designs where blinking and photobleaching reduced performance.
—Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 20 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for spectral
Recent Examples of Synonyms for spectral
Adjective
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While its 209-minute runtime may be daunting, the film moves along at an entertaining clip (thanks in part to master editor Thelma Schoonmaker), and the viewer's patience is rewarded with a haunting conclusion that recontextualizes all that came before.—
Kevin Jacobsen,
Entertainment Weekly,
9 Apr. 2026
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The 2019 overdose death of aspiring personal trainer Cody McLaury was found to have a haunting connection to Perry.—
Jack Hannah,
CNN Money,
8 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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The singer slowed down the track a bit by adding an acoustic guitar, a pedal steel guitar, and switching out the eerie flute notes for a piano.—
Maya Georgi,
Rolling Stone,
24 Apr. 2026
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The 2026 Wagner New Play Festival kicks off today at UC San Diego, with three new works by MFA plywriting candidates on topics ranging from caveman romance to self-identity to an eerie high school ritual.—
Pam Kragen,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
24 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Before the title card, there is also a creepy look at Matt with no eyes, nose or mouth.—
Brendan Morrow,
USA Today,
23 Apr. 2026
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Screenwriter Jeremy Robbins sets up what appears to be a potential threat in a creepy kangaroo hunter (Matt Whelan) and his drunken mate (Rob Carlton), whose names alone, Diesel and Ripper, carry a hint of menace.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
23 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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These phantom costs drive up annual premiums.—
Jordan Bruneau,
Boston Herald,
25 Apr. 2026
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Developers routinely file speculative interconnection requests for projects that never get built, flooding queues with phantom demand.—
Tejasri Gururaj,
Interesting Engineering,
24 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Bryce Dallas Howard is getting ghostly.—
Aaron Couch,
HollywoodReporter,
29 Apr. 2026
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Sadie Benning and Michael Almereyda have found ghostly, evocative textures using Pixelvision, a Fisher-Price toy camera from the late 1980s.—
Dennis Lim,
The New York Review of Books,
25 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Some weird ground balls, a bounce over (first baseman Gavin) Sheets’ head.—
Kevin Acee,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
27 Apr. 2026
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Cabdrivers sometimes call it the Hinckley Hilton—a weird local homage to the shooter, John Hinckley, Jr.—
Antonia Hitchens,
New Yorker,
26 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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The former is right up the alley of fans of supernatural thrillers, while the latter pulls back the curtain on the invention of reality TV.—
Kat Chen,
Condé Nast Traveler,
25 Apr. 2026
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But where once engineers could use any raw ingredients at their disposal to make parts with almost supernatural structural abilities, the climate crisis dictates a change of strategy.—
Caitlin Kennedy,
Scientific American,
25 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Spectral.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/spectral. Accessed 2 May. 2026.
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