1
as in fairies
an imaginary being usually having a small human form and magical powers
the child insisted that he'd seen a sprite hiding in the garden
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
2
as in spirits
the soul of a dead person thought of especially as appearing to living people
told hair-raising stories of sprites and spectral ships
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of sprites
Beyond the famous spaceships, X-Wing and TIE Fighter also brought compelling stories set in the Star Wars universe, alongside technical advancements like fully 3D graphics in place of the bitmap sprites of previous titles.
—
Alan Bradley, Space.com, 31 Jan. 2026
The video chip’s control registers, screen bitmaps, text-screen data, default and custom character sets, sprites, and color information all live in different locations scattered across memory, with some data actually living in separate RAM and ROM chips.
—Stephen Cass, IEEE Spectrum, 28 Sep. 2025
Alan Bradley, Space.com, 31 Jan. 2026
The video chip’s control registers, screen bitmaps, text-screen data, default and custom character sets, sprites, and color information all live in different locations scattered across memory, with some data actually living in separate RAM and ROM chips.
—Stephen Cass, IEEE Spectrum, 28 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sprites
Noun
-
Dozens of dogs dressed as alligators, fairies and superheroes gathered Saturday at a Rio de Janeiro Carnival street party as their owners protested cruelty against pets.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
14 Feb. 2026
-
Plans include music, magic shows, face painting, stilt walkers, fairies, robots, a giant LED screen showing the ball drop from Times Square and more.—
Marla Jo Fisher,
Oc Register,
29 Dec. 2025
Noun
-
The spirits are all around here.—
Deborah Treisman,
New Yorker,
8 Mar. 2026
-
The day event features a pop-up photo studio with celebrity photographer David Christopher Lee, along with brands across beauty, wellness, home and spirits — and puppies also available for adoption.—
Kirsten Chuba,
HollywoodReporter,
6 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
The theft follows a similar incident in December, when members of the same group flooded into a Montreal grocery store dressed as Santa Clause and his elves, stealing food and leaving some of it gift-wrapped under a nearby Christmas tree.—
Max Saltman,
CNN Money,
4 Feb. 2026
-
One of Magnason’s first jobs was at the National Archives of Iceland, where he was surrounded by books about the old Norse gods, colonial histories, and even stories about elves.—
Marya E. Gates,
IndieWire,
27 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
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
-
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
-
Henson was cast as Hoggle, one of the film’s most prominent goblins and Sarah’s reluctant ally, while also managing puppeteering responsibilities behind the scenes.—
Tereza Shkurtaj,
PEOPLE,
10 Jan. 2026
-
The kallikantzaroi are a group of blind, black goblins who live underground during most of the year sawing at the world tree – a motif throughout various folklores that connects the heavens to the Earth.—
Carlie Procell,
USA Today,
20 Dec. 2025
Noun
-
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
-
This may explain something about ghosts.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
At scale, this dwarfs data center optimization gains.—
Arjun Sharma,
IEEE Spectrum,
17 Feb. 2026
-
The ditch that’s up to 19 feet deep dwarfs the heavy machinery inside of it.—
Eleanor Nash,
Kansas City Star,
26 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
They were hidden in DART’s original photos, but UMD researchers Tony Farnham and Juan Rizos developed techniques to remove shadows and lighting effects.—
Bojan Stojkovski,
Interesting Engineering,
8 Mar. 2026
-
Titled ClairObscur, it was dedicated to illuminating forms of character through the exploration of shadows, in part inspired by the dramatic tenebrism of Caravaggio.—
Luke Leitch,
Vogue,
7 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Sprites.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sprites. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
