as in ghost
the soul of a dead person thought of especially as appearing to living people
we thought a poltergeist was knocking dishes off the shelves, but it turned out to just be vibrations from passing trains
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Recent Examples of poltergeist
Set in the late 1970s, sees Ed and Lorraine Warren head to a council house in Enfield, North London, where a single mother and her four children are being plagued by what appears to be a poltergeist.
—
Simon Thompson, Forbes.com, 31 Aug. 2025
The Warrens are also famous for their investigation of a haunted house in Amityville, NY, and the 1980s Connecticut poltergeist case based on a Warren case, in which demonic possession was used unsuccessfully as a defense in a murder trial.
—Pamela McLoughlin, Hartford Courant, 5 Aug. 2025
Despite debuting nearly 40 years after the original, the poltergeist scared up a strong $452 million at the global box office.
—Angelique Jackson, Variety, 1 Aug. 2025
On a more intimate scale, Gemma and Cady’s new Bay Area rental is a smart house where everything is a potential poltergeist, from the ice dispenser to the vacuum.
—Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for poltergeist
Simon Thompson, Forbes.com, 31 Aug. 2025
The Warrens are also famous for their investigation of a haunted house in Amityville, NY, and the 1980s Connecticut poltergeist case based on a Warren case, in which demonic possession was used unsuccessfully as a defense in a murder trial.
—Pamela McLoughlin, Hartford Courant, 5 Aug. 2025
Despite debuting nearly 40 years after the original, the poltergeist scared up a strong $452 million at the global box office.
—Angelique Jackson, Variety, 1 Aug. 2025
On a more intimate scale, Gemma and Cady’s new Bay Area rental is a smart house where everything is a potential poltergeist, from the ice dispenser to the vacuum.
—Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for poltergeist
Recent Examples of Synonyms for poltergeist
Noun
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The silk mousseline garments floated almost like ghosts or memories of Chanel designs past, including the famous skirt suit with its matching cardigan and Karl Lagerfeld modernisms like jeans with a tweed jacket, plus the iconic flap bag.—
CNN Money,
CNN Money,
30 Jan. 2026
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Elytra Dark will serve as a transfer vehicle to bring the Blue ghost lander to the moon.—
Richard Tribou,
The Orlando Sentinel,
30 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Juggling demanding apparitions alongside staff burnout, family pressures and a coworker who seems to know more about her than expected, the series grounds its supernatural premise in the cultural specificity of the Filipino healthcare experience.—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
3 Feb. 2026
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An apparition will appear before us.—
Todd Martens,
Los Angeles Times,
21 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Though Proust never came to Ireland, his own work also contains echoes of Irish history and culture that epitomize its polymathic, cosmopolitan spirit.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
2 Feb. 2026
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The resulting images of floating cameras, canisters, and film boxes push the idea of spirit photography to a conceptual (and rather comic) extreme.—
Shannon Taggart,
Artforum,
1 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Poltergeist.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/poltergeist. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.
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