# wraith

> English word · Noun · IPA /ɹeɪθ/ · frequency rank #28,091

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

## Etymology
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.
Century Dictionary compares Old Norse vǫrðr (“guardian”); Klein compares Irish arrachd (“apparition”), which is related to riochd (“shape, likeness”).

## Easily confused with
- **writ** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wraith-vs-writ)
- **write** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wraith-vs-write)
- **wrath** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wraith-vs-wrath)
- **wreath** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wraith-vs-wreath)
- **with** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/with-vs-wraith)
- **wait** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wait-vs-wraith)
- **waits** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/waits-vs-wraith)
- **waite** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/waite-vs-wraith)
- **wealth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wealth-vs-wraith)

## Common misspellings (9)
`rwaith`, `warith`, `wraiht`, `wraithh`, `wraitth`, `wratih`, `wriath`, `wrraith`, `wwraith`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/wraith