1
as in spy
a person who tries secretly to obtain information for one country in the territory of another usually unfriendly country
Russia recalled its spooks after the collapse of the Soviet Union
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
2
as in ghost
the soul of a dead person thought of especially as appearing to living people
Halloween is the night when spooks and goblins are said to roam abroad
Synonyms & Similar Words
as in to frighten
to strike with fear
the sudden noise spooked her out of her skin
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of spook
Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Dec. 2024
Outside of Phoenix, Western theme park Old Tucson is delivering spooks with its Nightfall at Old Tucson event that includes haunted mazes, roaming scares and magic shows.
—Michael Salerno, The Arizona Republic, 15 Oct. 2024
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Newsweek, 13 Mar. 2025
The officer suggested that the delivery worker go around the back of the house to drop off the food, but the 8-foot-long gator spooked her.
—Aliza Chasan, CBS News, 12 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for spook
Noun
But that didn’t stop Joe Barton, creator of Black Doves, the Netflix Christmas spy thriller now streaming, from encumbering star Keira Knightley as dedicated wife and professional spook Helen Webb with Ben Whishaw‘s Sam Young, a fellow spy and assassin, in all matters of love and relationships.
—Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Dec. 2024
Outside of Phoenix, Western theme park Old Tucson is delivering spooks with its Nightfall at Old Tucson event that includes haunted mazes, roaming scares and magic shows.
—Michael Salerno, The Arizona Republic, 15 Oct. 2024
Verb
This includes his aggressive strategy to tax imports, which many say has spooked the stock market.
—Raja Krishnamoorthi, Newsweek, 13 Mar. 2025
The officer suggested that the delivery worker go around the back of the house to drop off the food, but the 8-foot-long gator spooked her.
—Aliza Chasan, CBS News, 12 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for spook
Recent Examples of Synonyms for spook
Noun
-
Elon Musk visited the CIA headquarters on Monday for talks on government efficiency, the spy agency director of public affairs Liz Lyons told Axios.—
Barak Ravid,
Axios,
1 Apr. 2025
-
Chilean writer-director Felipe Gálvez, whose debut feature The Settlers premiered in Cannes in 2023, has set his second feature film as Impunity, a spy thriller set in the late 1990s around the arrest of dictator Augusto Pinochet.—
Diana Lodderhose,
Deadline,
1 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Except he’s lured there in the dead of winter, presumably called once more by the ghosts of children killed by violence in years past.—
Matt Donnelly,
Variety,
3 Apr. 2025
-
The Mad Money host then invoked the ghost of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, widely seen as a major contributing factor to the Great Depression.—
Tom Tapp,
Deadline,
1 Apr. 2025
Verb
-
Miller, of course, is aware that Trump’s intention, always, is to shock, to play the madman, and thus frighten his rivals and alter the terms of the debate.—
David Remnick,
The New Yorker,
5 Feb. 2025
-
Seeing those kinds of numbers in headlines may have started to frighten U.S. consumers, data shows.—
Meghan Hall,
Sourcing Journal,
4 Mar. 2025
Noun
-
Back when Rahm Emanuel was President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, the idea that a political operative once nicknamed Rahmbo could be a viable candidate to succeed his boss would have seemed a little far-fetched.—
Gal Beckerman,
The Atlantic,
20 Mar. 2025
-
Michael Fassbender stars as George, a chilly veteran British operative who’s given a list of five possible agents who might be betraying the organization.—
Keith Phipps,
Vulture,
19 Mar. 2025
Noun
-
In the writer-director’s latest horror flick, The Monkey, there is no malignant apparition, and death doesn’t lurk or stalk.—
Madison Bloom,
Pitchfork,
7 Feb. 2025
-
Zoe, as an apparition, is both the cause and relief to her pain.—
Jake Coyle,
Boston Herald,
28 Feb. 2025
Verb
-
Possibly, those who spent a lot of time looking at all kinds of NPCs are harder to scare with imperfect 3D models of people.—
Victor Erukhimov,
Forbes,
21 Mar. 2025
-
Fearful Tesla drivers are asking Tesla to implement new tech features in the vehicle to scare off protesters, Fortune reports.—
Emily Forlini,
PCMAG,
21 Mar. 2025
Noun
-
Family Photo That all changed on the evening of March 8, when federal agents arrived at their door.—
Erin Moriarty,
CBS News,
23 Mar. 2025
-
Here, traffic optimization isn’t just a single system’s job; fleets of autonomous vehicles, interconnected traffic lights, and predictive analytics engines work as coordinated agents, dynamically rerouting vehicles and minimizing congestion.—
Cathy Hackl,
Forbes,
23 Mar. 2025
Noun
-
But that resilience and spirit are certainly being tested, with the Heat’s last win coming nearly three weeks ago on March 3 in a home victory over the Washington Wizards.—
Anthony Chiang,
Miami Herald,
22 Mar. 2025
-
Smells like teen spirit As bloody and grim as Greek myths have always been, Santa Monica Studio established even darker trappings with 2005’s God of War.—
Diego Argüello,
Rolling Stone,
22 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Spook.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/spook. Accessed 5 Apr. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share