Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Spook |
SpookNoun1. Someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric. 2. A mental representation of some haunting experience; "he looked like he had seen a ghost"; "it aroused specters from his past". Verb1. Frighten or scare, and often provoke into a violent action: "The noise spooked the horse". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "spook" was first used: 1801. (references) |
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
SPOOK | English | Supervisor Program Over Other Kinds | Computing |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: SpookSynonyms: creep (n), ghost (n), schmuck (n), shade (n), specter (n), spectre (n), weirdie (n), weirdo (n), weirdy (n), wraith (n). (additional references) |
| 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. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Spook |
| English words defined with "spook": Spuke. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "spook": Robert T. Morris. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Spook" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Afrikaan (ghost, phantom), Dutch (ghost, phantom). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Have you or your family ever seen a spook, spectre or ghost (Ghost Busters; writing credit: Dan Aykroyd; Harold Ramis) Your girlfriend lives in the corner penthouse of Spook Central (Ghost Busters; writing credit: Dan Aykroyd; Harold Ramis) A spook, or (Mad Monster Party?; writing credit: Forrest J Ackerman) A hypochondriac spook. (Heart Condition; writing credit: James D. Parriott) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Spook and Span (1958) The Spook Speaks (1947) Spook Busters (1946) The Spook Speaks (1940) Spook Sport (1939) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Mel Roy on the stage mid-nite, spook party talking skulls, spirit slate writing, spirit table raising, ghosts from the dead. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |
| "Spook Tree" by Geoff Richardson Commentary: "Very errie looking up under a tree canopy." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Play | Caption |
 | Scream; terror; fright; yell; frightened; frighten; scare; scary; frightening; fear; alarm; spook; terrorize. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Spook" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 59.38% of the time. "Spook" is used about 32 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) | 59.38% | 19 | 80,337 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 31.25% | 10 | 111,207 |
| Noun (proper) | 6.25% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 3.13% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 32 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "spook": spook-in-residence. | |
| 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 | Expression | Frequency per Day |
spook | 83 | fl hill spook | 3 |
spook house | 28 | light missouri spook | 3 |
hill spook | 25 | lil spook | 3 |
light spook | 24 | club golf rock spook | 3 |
spook rock golf course | 22 | guay spook | 3 |
zara spook | 20 | spook tech | 3 |
cave spook | 19 | hill lake spook wales | 2 |
rock spook | 16 | central spook | 2 |
corset spook | 13 | handy spook | 2 |
golf rock spook | 12 | campground cave spook | 2 |
spook who sat by door | 11 | fishing spook zara | 2 |
florida hill spook | 9 | hornet light spook | 2 |
cave iowa spook | 5 | city record spook | 2 |
heddon spook zara | 5 | show spook | 2 |
joplin light spook | 4 | light oklahoma spook | 2 |
dj metallica spook | 4 | ||
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "spook"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | hije (apparition, background, cloud, color, colour, dark, ghost, loom, phantasm, phantom, propriety, reflection, reflexion, shade, shadow, spirit, umbra, wraith). (various references) | |
Arabic | خيال (conceit, fantasy, fiction, ghost, illusion, imagination, phantasy, shade, shadow, shape, silhouette, spectrum, wraith), أقلق (agitate, beset, concern, disconcert, disquiet, distress, disturb, ferret, fret, fuss, hop, molest, obsess, peck, perturb, rile, shake up, torment, trouble, undo, unhinge, unsettle, upset, worry), روع (appal, appall, awe, cow, daunt, put the wind up, scare, stare, terrify, terrorize), شبح (apparition, bogey, evil spirit, ghost, gremlin, idol, phantom, shade, shadow, shape, spectre, spectrum, spirit, sprite, wraith). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | призрак (appearance, bogy, eidolon, ghost, phantasm, phantom, shade, shadow, shape, spectre, spirit, vision, wraith), дух (fetch, ghost, mettle, mind, morale, pecker, phantasm, presence, shade, soul, spirit, tone, visitant). (various references) | |
Chinese | 幽灵 (Phantom, specter, spectre). (various references) | |
Czech | strašit (haunt), strašidlo (bugbear, fright, ghost, poltergeist, spectre, spirit), duch (apparition, esprit, ghost, gimp, mind, psyche, soul, spectre, spirit). (various references) | |
Farsi | ترساندن (Abhor, Affray, Appall, Awe, Bash, Buffalo, Cow, Daunt, Deter, Feeze, Fray, Fright, Horrify, Huff, Intimidate, Scare, Shore, Threat, Tremble), جن (Bogey, Deuce, Elf, Goblin, Sprite, Urchin), روح (Esprit, Ghost, Numen, Phantom, Psyche, Specter, Spirit, Sprite, Umber, Umbra, Wraith, Zinc, Zing), شبح (Ghost, Phantom, Spectrum, Sprite, Umber, Umbra, Wraith), دیو (Bogey, Gnome, Goblin). (various references) | |
Finnish | kummitus (ghost), aave (apparition, ghost, phantom, spectre). (various references) | |
French | revenant (spirit), hanter, hanté, faire peur, effrayer, apparition. (various references) | |
German | spuk (din, fuss, ghost, palaver, phantom, racket, to-do). (various references) | |
Greek | φάντασμα (apparition, bogey, bogy, genie, ghost, gnome, hobgoblin, phantasm, phantom, pixy, specter, sprite, wraith). (various references) | |
Hungarian | kísértet (apparition, appearance, bogey, boggle, bogy, eidolon, ghost, phantasm, phantom, poltergeist, shadow, specter, spectre, vampire, wraith), hazajáró lélek (ghost). (various references) | |
Italian | spettro (ghost, shadow, specter, spectre, spectrum, spirit, wraith), apparizione (apparition, appearance, ghost, glimpse). (various references) | |
Manx | scaan (apparition, double, ghost, reflection, spectre, spirit). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ookspay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | fantasma (apparition, bogle, bugaboo, bugbear, eidolon, ghost, golliwog, haunt, hob, leprechaun, phantasm, phantom, shadow, spectre, spirit, wraith), espectro (bogle, eidolon, ghost, phantasm, phantom, spectre, spectrum, spirit, wraith), aparição (apparition, ghost, phantasm, phantom, spectre, spirit). (various references) | |
Romanian | stafie (apparition, ghost, shadow, spectre), spiriduş (brownie, elf, elfin, elves, familiar, Goblin, hobgoblin, sprite), nãlucã (apparition, chimera, ghost, shape, spectre), fantomã (apparition, Bogle, chimera, fetch, ghost, phantasm, phantom, shade, shadow, spectre, wraith, zombie). (various references) | |
Russian | привидение (apparition, bogey, bogeyman, boggard, boggart, eidolon, fetch, ghost, shade, spectre, spirit, wraith). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | sablast (bogle, ghost, specter, visitant), avet (apparition, bogey, bogle, ghost, phantom, specter, visitant). (various references) | |
Spanish | fantasma (bogey, bogie, ghost, hallucination, phantasm, phantom, shade, shadow, spectre, wraith), espectro (bogey, bogie, bogy, ghost, specter, spectre, spectrum), espía (keek, snooper, Spier, spy, warping). (various references) | |
Swedish | spöke (apparition, bogey, boggard, bugaboo, bugbear, fright, ghost, phantom, specter, spectre, spirit), spöka i, skrämma (alarm, appal, appall, browbeat, bulldoze, cow, daunt, fright, frighten, horrify, intimidate, overawe, scare, startle, terrify), underlig kurre (fuddy-duddy, queer fish). (various references) | |
Turkish | hortlak (ghost, ghoul, phantom), hayalet gibi görünmek, hayalet (apparition, ghost, phantasm, phantom, shade, shades, shadow, specter, spectre, spirit, sprite, wraith), casus (beagle, emissary, gumshoe, infiltrator, intelligencer, spy), ajan (agent, courier, gumshoe, infiltrator, intelligencer, secret agent, spy). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | привид (apparition, appearance, boggard, bogy, caddy, eidolon, ghost, haunter, poltergeist, presence, spectre, waff, wraith), письменник-невидимка. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Middle Dutch | 1100-1500 | spooc. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "spook": spooked, spookeries, spookery, spookier, spookiest, spookily, spookiness, spookinesses, spooking, spookish, spooks, spooky. (additional references) | |
| |
"Spook" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Espoo, Isporock, pook, sook, speok, spoa, spoak, spock, spog, spoo, spoock, spood, spooh, spooj, spork, spoub, swook. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words ending with "ook": look, Nook, Ook. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "k-o-o-p-s" | |
-1 letter: kops, oops, sook. | |
-2 letters: kop, kos, ops, sop. | |
-3 letters: op, os, so. | |
| Words containing the letters "k-o-o-p-s" | |
+1 letter: pookas, spooks, spooky. | |
+2 letters: hookups, lookups, mopokes, spooked. | |
+3 letters: bookshop, cookshop, cooktops, cowpokes, hockshop, outspoke, palookas, passbook, pollocks, pothooks, prebooks, precooks, provokes, slopwork, slowpoke, smokepot, spookery, spookier, spookily, spooking, spookish, stockpot, stopcock, topknots, topworks, workshop. | |
+4 letters: bookshops, chapbooks, cockapoos, cookshops, copybooks, forespoke, hockshops, hoopskirt, openworks, outspoken, passbooks, peekaboos, photomask, pinkroots, playbooks, pokeroots, porkwoods, provokers, psalmbook, reaphooks, scrapbook, skidproof, slopworks, slowpokes, smokepots, spookiest, stockpots, stopcocks, woolpacks, workshops. | |
| 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. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Sounds 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Abbreviations 16. Acronyms | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
