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Added 9 October 2026

wraith

/ɹeɪθ/ noun

First recorded: 1513 Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about wraith at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A ghost or specter, especially a person's likeness seen just after their death.

Origin

Borrowed from Middle Scots wraith, first attested in 1513 in a translation of the Aeneid. The word has no certain etymology; it may be a transferred use of Middle Scots wraith, wrath (nominally "anger, rage", adjectivally "angry, wrathful"), thus connecting it to writhe and making it a doublet of wrath and wroth. The old Century Dictionary compares Old Norse vǫrðr (“guardian”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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