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Ghosts

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The term ‘ghost’ has been used popularly for centuries, but defies precise definition. Broadly speaking, it encompasses alleged manifestations believed to arise from a human being or animal, once living and now deceased. Ghosts typically involve the sighting of apparitions , but a range of other phenomena are taken as indications of their presence (see hauntings ). Traditional beliefs regarding ghosts have invariably viewed them as manifestations of spirit s or discarnate entities , which may occur only once or reoccur over a lengthy period of time at a particular location. Attitudes to the reality of ghosts remain ultimately governed by personal belief, such as the question of life after death. It has been said that every culture in human history has held some form of belief in ghosts and the possibility that the dead can return to the world of the living; this is a cultural constant, drawing its strength in part from continuing human experience. Numerous examples of ghost beliefs are…
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Full text Article ghost

From Word Origins
In Old English times, ghost was simply a synonym for ‘spirit’ or ‘soul’(a sense preserved in Holy Ghost )’, it did not acquire its modern connotations of the ‘disembodied spirit of a dead person appearing among the living’ until the 14th century. However, since it has been traced back to…
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Full text Article spectre

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
An apparition, ghost or phantom; also used of a naturally occurring phenomenon known as the Brocken spectre. The word ‘spectre’ (from the Latin spectrum , meaning ‘an appearance’) is generally used to refer to any apparition or ghost of the dead, and to various classes of supernatural being. It is…
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Full text Article ghost

From The Macquarie Dictionary
the disembodied spirit of a dead person imagined as wandering among or haunting living persons. Plural: ghosts a mere shadow or semblance ghost of a chance., ghosts noun upper case /goyst/, /gohst/ a spiritual being Holy Ghost., ghosts Obsolete spirit; principle of life. Plural: ghosts Colloquial…
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Full text Article Ghost

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
A person whose job it is to destroy apparitions or lay a ghost . The term was popularized by the US film Ghostbusters (1984). The mind (‘ghost’) as distinct from the body (‘machine’). The expression was coined by the philosopher Gilbert Ryle in The Concept of Mind (1949). The phrase is sometimes…
| 516 words
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Full text Article ghost

From The Chambers Dictionary
a spirit; the soul of a person; a spirit appearing after death; a dead body ( Shakesp ); a person who writes (eg speeches) on behalf of another credited as author; a faint or false appearance; a semblance; a person on the payroll who does no actual work ( business , etc); a person counted on an…
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Full text Article GHOST

From The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters
Waiting by Anki King
The term “ghost,” from the German geist (“soul,” “spirit”), generally refers to the spirit of a dead person or animal, particularly one that manifests its presence to the living. In Western cultures, ghosts appear most frequently as insubstantial apparitions. In many other cultures, however, …
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Full text Article ghost

From The American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language
The spirit of a dead person, especially one that is believed to appear to the living in bodily form or to haunt specific locations. A person's spirit or soul: was sick for months and finally gave up the ghost. A returning or haunting memory or image. a. A slight or faint trace: just a ghost of a…
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Full text Article Ghosts

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The term ‘ghost’ has been used popularly for centuries, but defies precise definition. Broadly speaking, it encompasses alleged manifestations believed to arise from a human being or animal, once living and now deceased. Ghosts typically involve the sighting of apparitions , but a range of other…
| 1,563 words
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Full text Article ghost

From Collins English Dictionary
n 1 the disembodied spirit of a dead person, supposed to haunt the living as a pale or shadowy vision; phantom. Related adjective: spectral 2 a haunting memory: the ghost of his former life rose up before him 3 a faint trace or possibility of something; glimmer: a ghost of a smile 4 the spirit; soul…
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Full text Article ghosts

From The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization
Identifying a ghost in Greek literature and distinguishing it from what we might call a delusion or a supernatural entity can sometimes pose difficulties: *Homer tends to use the term psychē to describe his spirits, but we also find skia . In later writers, eidōlon is used (Hdt. 5.92.η and Pl. Leg. …
| 2,189 words
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