spook
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To frighten or make nervous.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
spookIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈspuk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To frighten or make nervous (especially by startling).
intransitive
To become frightened (by something startling).
transitive
To haunt.
noun
informal
A scare or fright.
espionageslang
An undercover agent, spy, or intelligence analyst.
informal
A ghost or phantom.
A hobgoblin.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To frighten or make nervous (especially by startling).
Used this way, spook is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.