as in spirits
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 poltergeists
There are newspaper clippings, from the 1950s through to the 2000s, concerning ghost sightings, or reports of poltergeists in market towns or children who appear to possess uncanny extrasensory powers.
—
Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 2025
Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for poltergeists
Noun
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Scheffler was thoroughly amused and looked to be in good spirits heading into Sunday.—
Gabby Herzig,
New York Times,
15 Mar. 2026
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The displays are meant to echo the rugged mountain paths of Ethiopia, Mexico, and Perú, places where children rise before dawn, walk miles to do their chores, and return home with soles bruised and spirits tested.—
Abraham Nudelstejer,
Dallas Morning News,
15 Mar. 2026
Noun
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There are ghosts lingering in the story.—
Elsa Keslassy,
Variety,
13 Mar. 2026
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Good, bad or meh, any movie, painting, song that strikes you on some gut level, for whatever reason, drags behind it the ghosts of ourselves, the past, future and present.—
Christopher Borrelli,
Chicago Tribune,
12 Mar. 2026
Noun
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On top of these apparitions, a human foe, whose motives for committing a crime seem rather nebulous, also exists.—
Carlos Aguilar,
Variety,
15 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
Cite this Entry
“Poltergeists.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/poltergeists. Accessed 22 Mar. 2026.
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