The dictionary defines a ghost as (gōst)n.:
1. apparition: a ghostly figure, or a sight that is unexpected or unusual
2. bogey (or bogie or bogy): synonymous with phantom and spirit, but also something that prompts fear or dread; by extension, an unidentified aircraft, especially an enemy warplane (also the source of the term bogeyman — often spelled boogeyman — referring to a monster whose name is invoked by parents or other adults to frighten children into obedience
3. banshee: a female spirit whose appearance or wailing cry presages death
4. bogle: synonymous with specter (the word from which bogey and its variants were derived)
5. eidolon: synonymous with phantom, but also refers to an exemplar or ideal
6. familiar (or familiar spirit): a spirit that takes animal form and protects or serves a person, especially a witch (also refers to flesh-and-blood figures, including a companion or other well-known person or a person seen frequently in a specific place or in general, a household attendant for a important official, or somebody who knows a subject well
7. haunt (or hant): synonymous with ghost; also, a frequented location, or, as a verb, to visit or reappear or recur frequently, or to trouble, or to inhabit or visit (said of a ghost)
8. materialization: synonymous with apparition
9. phantasm (or fantasm): synonymous with specter; also, an illusion or product of the imagination, or a mental image of a physical object
10. phantom: synonymous with apparition, but other figurative senses include something that is elusive or that has no physical form, including a representation, or something that evokes dread
11. poltergeist: a noisy, mischievous ghost
12. shade: a spirit, or a fleeting or unreal appearance, in addition to the standard meanings associated with the obscuring of light
13. shadow: synonymous with apparition, in addition to literal and figurative senses regarding partial darkness
14. specter (or spectre): a visible ghost; also refers figuratively to some threat or imminent disturbance, such as the threat of famine or war
15. spirit: a ghost that may or may not be visible, or a being capable of possessing a person; also, an animating force, a supernatural being, or a characteristic quality or temper
16. spook: synonymous with specter, but also slang referring to a spy
17. sprite: synonymous with ghost, though more often synonymous with elf or fairy or used to refer to an elflike person
18. vision: a supernatural appearance, not necessary of a lifelike figure, that reveals something to the viewer, in addition to connotations associated with sight as well as imagination
19. visitant: a visitor from a spirit realm; also, a real-life visitor
20. wraith: synonymous with specter, but also has the sense of a representation of a living person that appears to another just before that person’s death; also, like shadow, refers to a remnant, either of a person or a thing
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