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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This also marks the first time players can become ghouls themselves in the mainline story.—
Destiny Jackson,
Deadline,
26 Feb. 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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The hottest mess in this brood, at least from outward appearances, is Josh (Thomas Sadoski), a firefighter battling demons, pills and booze.—
Randy Myers,
Mercury News,
4 Mar. 2026
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The bought-in blue demons knew early on in the second year under Holtmann that a turnaround season was possible.—
Jori Parys,
CBS News,
3 Mar. 2026
Noun
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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
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Because contemporary phantoms of Richard Mille, Patek Philippe, and Rolex are expertly constructed to entice even the most discerning eye, provenance is crucial.—
Connie Etemadi,
USA Today,
11 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Eternally Yours will tell an eternal love story about two vampires, Charles (Ed Weeks) and Liz (Allegra Edwards), who have been married for five hundred years, and their struggles to accept the human who is dating their daughter Emma (Helen J Shen).—
Rosy Cordero,
Deadline,
2 Mar. 2026
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The movie is set in the Mississippi River Delta during the 1930s and tackles themes of music, race, family, religion and vampires.—
Yi-Jin Yu,
ABC News,
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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This may explain something about ghosts.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Mar. 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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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
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The small museum, which opened last year, covers the creatures, apparitions and mysteries eluding prosaic explanation.—
Adam Kuehl,
New York Times,
19 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Some small changes might lift your spirits.—
Tarot.com,
The Orlando Sentinel,
28 Feb. 2026
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Assuming that businesses passed the entire fee to consumers, as expected, costs would rise about 3 cents for six 12-ounce beer cans, 5 cents for a standard-sized wine bottle and 26 cents for a fifth of spirits.—
Meg Wingerter,
Denver Post,
27 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Banshees.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/banshees. Accessed 9 Mar. 2026.
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