wraith

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 31, 2026 is: wraith • \RAYTH\ • noun Wraith refers to the spirit of a dead person, or in other words, a ghost. // The most frightening scene from the movie featured a vengeful wraith creeping slowly up behind the main characters. See the entry > Examples: "Nearly every storyteller knew the legend of the ghostly woman dressed in white, forever searching for her husband. ... Like all good desert legends, the facts shifted with the wind, but the ending was always the same: if you wandered too far into the dunes, you just might hear the wraith calling

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