banshee

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noun ban·shee \ˈban-(ˌ)shē, ban-ˈ\

Definition of banshee

: a female spirit in Gaelic folklore whose appearance or wailing warns a family that one of them will soon die We heard someone screaming like a banshee.

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Examples of banshee in a Sentence

I heard someone wailing like a banshee.

Recent Examples of banshee from the Web

About ten minutes in, someone came to my front door and my little dog Meimei, resting at my feet, jumped up and started barking like a banshee.

— alan paul, Billboard, "Trouble No More: Allman Brothers Biographer Alan Paul Reflects on 25 Years of Interviewing Gregg Allman", 27 May 2017
Flight of Passage is a rollicking simulator that re-creates adventures aboard a mountain banshee, the winged best friend of the Na’vi.

— dewayne bevil, OrlandoSentinel.com, "10 things to know about Disney's Pandora - the World of Avatar", 26 May 2017
Two new rides are featured: Avatar Flight of Passage is a 3-D flight simulator that takes riders on a trip on the back of a banshee, while Na’vi River Journey is an indoor boat ride that floats guests on a river tour of the rain forest of Pandora.

— atlanta life, ajc, "Southeast’s theme parks pack plenty of thrills for 2017", 26 May 2017
Guests can explore bioluminescent forests and soar on the back of a banshee at Disney World’s Pandora –

— arthur levine, USA TODAY, "Disney parks begin a blockbuster summer", 26 May 2017
While LEGO builders have been constructing warthogs, banshees and Master Chiefs since the first Halo game, this represents the first o fficial foray into bricks for the best selling game.

— dave banks, WIRED, "Finish The Fight, Brick By Brick", 4 Feb. 2009

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'banshee'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

In Irish folklore, a "bean sidhe" (literally "woman of fairyland") was not a welcome guest. When she was seen combing her hair or heard wailing beneath a window, it was considered a sign that a family member was about to die. English speakers modified the mournful fairy's Irish name into the modern word banshee - a term we now most often use to evoke her woeful or terrible or earsplitting cry, as in "to scream like a banshee," or attributively, "a banshee wail."