as in demon
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 banshee
Temperance let loose a banshee wail.
—
Charna Flam, People.com, 25 Aug. 2025
There aren’t songs with Chino screaming like a banshee, nor are there any overindulging atmospheric tracks.
—Quentin Thane Singer, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025
But just before all the banshee wailing threatens to overwhelm proceedings, along comes a hypnotic tribal beat which briefly turns the wake into a party.
—Jon O'Brien, Vulture, 13 May 2025
Our ears are still ringing from watching fans become shrieking banshees upon realizing that one of her professional dancers was actually the NFL star.
—Lauren Huff, EW.com, 7 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for banshee
Charna Flam, People.com, 25 Aug. 2025
There aren’t songs with Chino screaming like a banshee, nor are there any overindulging atmospheric tracks.
—Quentin Thane Singer, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025
But just before all the banshee wailing threatens to overwhelm proceedings, along comes a hypnotic tribal beat which briefly turns the wake into a party.
—Jon O'Brien, Vulture, 13 May 2025
Our ears are still ringing from watching fans become shrieking banshees upon realizing that one of her professional dancers was actually the NFL star.
—Lauren Huff, EW.com, 7 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for banshee
Recent Examples of Synonyms for banshee
Noun
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Together, the two men battle the forces of evil, each other, and their own demons on the path to salvation.—
Rosy Cordero,
Deadline,
11 Mar. 2026
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Then a demon by the name of Beetlejuice shows up and things really get nutty.—
Jim Harrington,
Mercury News,
9 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
The Stygiomedusa gigantea, commonly known as the giant phantom jelly, was filmed at 250 meters below the surface.—
Michelle Del Rey,
USA Today,
4 Feb. 2026
-
Old Town The belltower looms like a phantom.—
Chen Yuhong,
The Dial,
3 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Ledger ingeniously plays the Joker as a chaotic force of nature, a scarred and unknowable ghoul clad in clown paint and a garish suit from Demon's Wearhouse.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
4 Mar. 2026
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This also marks the first time players can become ghouls themselves in the mainline story.—
Destiny Jackson,
Deadline,
26 Feb. 2026
Noun
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While setting up a juke joint with the help of their musically gifted cousin Sammie (played by Miles Caton in his film debut), a trio of vampires takes over the celebration.—
Claire Malon,
Chicago Tribune,
5 Mar. 2026
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Mort’s definitely gotten the short end of the hybrid human-vampire stick, with an unimpressive ability to read the family dog’s mind.—
Rosy Cordero,
Deadline,
2 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The Paramount+ series, which follows a group of ghosts stuck in purgatory inside their high school, uses its premise — characters tethered to different decades — as both a narrative engine and a musical one.—
Kennedy French,
Variety,
5 Mar. 2026
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However, the gap to Arsenal is back up to seven points, below, and in trying eradicate it, City are chasing a ghost.—
Phil Hay,
New York Times,
5 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Pilots can see bad weather lurking in the distance hours before takeoff, glowing like a wraith on their digital maps.—
Burkhard Bilger,
New Yorker,
2 Mar. 2026
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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
-
Mercury puts on its best evening apparition of 2025 for Northern Hemisphere observers during these two weeks.—
Joe Rao,
Space.com,
2 Mar. 2026
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As the 14-year-old child of a poor family in 1858, Saint Bernadette experienced numerous apparitions of a young woman in a cave or grotto, seemingly the Virgin Mary, asking for a chapel to be built on the site.—
Chris Jones,
Chicago Tribune,
21 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Ah, the famous and epic love between an up-and-coming designer and his hag.—
Emma Specter,
Vogue,
19 Feb. 2026
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The regulars fired at them with a booming 12-pounder that made the American boys lift their knees like old hags, trip and founder as tentacles of water dragged them under.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
9 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Banshee.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/banshee. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.
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