Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Banshee |
BansheeNoun1. (Irish folklore) a female spirit who wails to warn of impending death. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "banshee" was first used: 1771. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Literature | Banshee The supposed domestic spirit of certain Irish or Highland Scottish families, supposed to take an interest in its welfare, and to wail at the death of one of the family. The Welsh "Cyhydraeth." is a sort of Banshee. The distinction of a Banshee is allowed only to families of pure Milesian stock. (Gaelic, ban-sith, a womanfairy.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Traditionally some Irish families had a banshee associated with them, and the banshee might make an appearance before a death in the family. The banshee is particularly well known for a mournful cry or wail by which this death is heralded. She is invariably dressed in white, with long fair hair which she brushes with a silver comb.
Compare: La Llorona, Bloody Mary Worth
For information on the X-Men comic book character, see Banshee (comics).
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Banshee."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Demon | Ghost, revenant, specter, apparition, spirit, shade, shadow, vision; hobglobin, goblin, orc; wraith, spook, boggart, banshee, loup-garou, lemures; evil eye. |
Jupiter | Allah, Bathala, Brahm, Brahma, Brahma, cloud-compeller, Devi, Durga, Kali, oread, the Great Spirit, Ushas; water nymph, wood nymph; Yama, Varuna, Zeus; Vishnu, Siva, Shiva, Krishna, Juggernath, Buddha; Isis, Osiris, Ra; Belus, Bel, Baal, Asteroth; Thor, Odin; Mumbo Jumbo; good genius, tutelary genius; demiurge, familiar; sibyl; fairy, fay; sylph, sylphid; Ariel, peri, nymph, nereid, dryad, seamaid, banshee, benshie, Ormuzd; Oberon, Mab, hamadryad, naiad, mermaid, kelpie, Ondine, nixie, sprite; denizens of the air; pixy; (bad spirit). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Banshee |
| English words defined with "banshee": Benshee. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "banshee": Bahr Geist ♦ May Molloch ♦ White Ladies. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Banshee" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Dutch (banshee), German (banshee). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | But I don't talk about that; I didn't get rid of the Banden Banshee by smiling at him! (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; writing credit: Steven Kloves) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Night the Banshee Cried (1957) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| "Banshee" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Banshee" is used about 37 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 37 | 56,631 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "banshee": banshee-like, banshee-wail. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
banshee | 781 |
yamaha banshee | 429 |
siouxsie the banshee | 211 |
banshee part | 54 |
atv banshee | 43 |
banshee picture | 38 |
banshee screamer | 33 |
voodoo banshee | 33 |
banshee hq | 31 |
banshee picture yamaha | 31 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "banshee"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Chinese | 女巫 (Banshie, sorceress). (various references) | |
Dutch | banshee. (various references) | |
Esperanto | banŝio. (various references) | |
Farsi | موجودوهمی بشکل روح . (various references) | |
German | todesfee. (various references) | |
Greek | σειρήνα αντιεροπορικού συναγερμού. (various references) | |
Hungarian | családi kísértet. (various references) | |
Italian | fantasma urlante che annuncia la morte. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | バロック音楽 (advance, ballon d essai, Bangkok, banjo, bank, banker, banquet, bantam, barometer, baron, Baroque music, bun, bungalow, bunker, van, Van Allen, Vancouver). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | バンシー . (various references) | |
Korean | " (Banshie, Fairies, Fairy). (various references) | |
Manx | ben shee (fairy woman). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ansheebay.(various references) | |
Spanish | hada maligna que anuncia la muerte. (various references) | |
Swedish | andeväsen (banshees). (various references) | |
Turkish | ölüm perisi. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Irish | 1000-Modern | bean sidhe. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "banshee": banshees. (additional references) | |
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"Banshee" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: anshe, Bagshawe, Bakschev, banchee, banschee, banshe, banshey, banshse, banzhuren, Bashayer, Bashy, Bencheik, Benshie, Bentheim, braashee, Fanshel. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: shebean. | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-e-e-h-n-s" | |
-2 letters: ashen, banes, beans, benes, hanse, hebes, nabes, sheen. | |
-3 letters: anes, bane, bans, base, bash, bean, been, bees, bene, bens, ease, haen, haes, hebe, hens, nabe, nabs, nebs, sabe, sane, seen, sene, shea. | |
-4 letters: abs, ane, ash, bah, ban, bas, bee, ben, ens, hae, has, hen, hes, nab, nae, nah, neb, nee, sab, sae, sea, see, sen, sha, she. | |
-5 letters: ab, ae, ah, an, as, ba, be, eh, en, es, ha, he, na, ne, sh. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-e-e-h-n-s" | |
+1 letter: banshees, henbanes, shebeans. | |
+2 letters: abhenries, bechances, boneheads, horsebean, thebaines. | |
+3 letters: beheadings, encashable, habergeons, hibernates, horsebeans, inbreathes, rebranches, whalebones. | |
+4 letters: abhorrences, backbenches, bearishness, brashnesses, breathiness, hebetations, shacklebone. | |
+5 letters: amphisbaenae, antechambers, backbenchers, benchwarmers, buccaneerish, chinaberries, hebephrenias, hyperboreans, shabbinesses, shacklebones, unsearchable. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)42 61 6E 73 68 65 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-... .- -. ... .... . . |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000010 01100001 01101110 01110011 01101000 01100101 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)B a n s h e e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0042 0061 006E 0073 0068 0065 0065 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)36678085747171 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Translations: Ancient 11. Derivations 12. Anagrams | 13. Orthography 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
