25 Must-Know Halloween Words for a Spooky Season

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Halloween conversations get much easier once you know a small set of words: costume, pumpkin, haunted house, and the door-call trick or treat.

Start with the 25 terms below. Each one includes a plain-English meaning, IPA pronunciation, and audio. Then you can add creative phrases, stronger adjectives, and useful equivalents in seven other languages.

One way to learn them is to make three passes. First, listen and recognise the word. Next, cover the meaning and recall it. Finally, use the word in a sentence you might actually say, such as “My costume is a vampire” or “That house looks eerie.”

A note from the Fluent in 3 Months team before we get started: You can chat away with a native speaker for at least 15 minutes with the “Fluent in 3 Months” method. All it takes is 90 days. Tap this link to find out more.

Essential Halloween Words and Phrases for Beginners

These are the words you are most likely to see in decorations, stories, party invitations, and everyday Halloween conversations. The IPA reflects a common American English pronunciation, so another English accent may sound slightly different.

Top 25 Must-Know Halloween Terms

Word	Meaning	IPA	Audio
Halloween	The celebration held on October 31	/ˌhæləˈwiːn/
Trick or treat	The phrase children say when asking for a treat at the door	/ˌtrɪk ər ˈtriːt/
Jack-o'-lantern	A pumpkin carved with a face and lit from inside	/ˌdʒæk ə ˈlæntərn/
Costume	Clothes worn to look like a character or creature	/ˈkɑːstuːm/
Ghost	The spirit of a dead person in stories and beliefs	/ɡoʊst/
Witch	A person said to use magic, especially in stories	/wɪtʃ/
Vampire	A mythical creature that feeds on blood	/ˈvæmpaɪər/
Werewolf	A person who turns into a wolf-like creature in folklore	/ˈwɛrwʊlf/
Zombie	A fictional dead body brought back to life	/ˈzɑːmbi/
Skeleton	The framework of bones in a body	/ˈskɛlɪtn/
Candy	The American English word for sweet treats	/ˈkændi/
Haunted house	A place said to have ghosts, or an attraction designed to scare visitors	/ˈhɔːntɪd haʊs/
Pumpkin	A large squash often carved for Halloween	/ˈpʌmpkɪn/
Bat	A nocturnal flying mammal used in Halloween imagery	/bæt/
Spider web	The silk structure made by a spider	/ˈspaɪdər wɛb/
Cauldron	A large pot, often used by witches in stories	/ˈkɔːldrən/
Broomstick	A broom shown as a witch's means of flight in stories	/ˈbruːmstɪk/
Mummy	A preserved dead body, often wrapped in cloth in popular imagery	/ˈmʌmi/
Goblin	A small, mischievous creature in folklore	/ˈɡɑːblɪn/
Fangs	Long, sharp teeth	/fæŋz/
Spooky	A little scary, often in a fun way	/ˈspuːki/
Creepy	Making you feel nervous or uncomfortable	/ˈkriːpi/
Boo	A sound shouted to surprise or frighten someone	/buː/
Ghoul	An evil spirit or monster associated with graves	/ɡuːl/
Eerie	Strange and frightening	/ˈɪr.i/

Do not try to memorise all 25 in one sitting. Pick eight to ten, listen twice, and make one short sentence with each. Review the same set tomorrow before adding more.

Common Halloween Greetings and Phrases

Happy Halloween!, Trick or treat!, and Boo! are ordinary spoken phrases. Most of the others below are playful lines for cards, party signs, or decorations. The puns in fang-tastic, spooktacular, and witching are deliberately silly.

Greeting	IPA	Audio
Happy Halloween!	/ˌhæpi ˌhæləˈwiːn/
Trick or treat!	/ˌtrɪk ər ˈtriːt/
Boo!	/buː/
Eat, drink, and be scary!	/iːt drɪŋk ænd bi ˈskɛri/
Have a fang-tastic night!	/hæv ə ˈfæŋtæstɪk naɪt/
Wishing you a spooktacular Halloween!	/ˈwɪʃɪŋ ju ə ˌspuːkˈtækjələr ˌhæləˈwiːn/
Beware of things that go bump in the night!	/bɪˈwɛr əv θɪŋz ðæt ɡoʊ bʌmp ɪn ðə naɪt/
Enter at your own risk!	/ˈɛntər æt jʊr oʊn rɪsk/
Witching you a happy Halloween!	/ˈwɪtʃɪŋ ju ə ˌhæpi ˌhæləˈwiːn/
Have a howling good time!	/hæv ə ˈhaʊlɪŋ ɡʊd taɪm/

Build a Useful Halloween Word Bank

An alphabetical list is handy for a word search, but categories are easier to remember and use. Add the words that suit your event instead of forcing yourself to learn every rare monster name.

• People and creatures: apparition, demon, Dracula, monster, phantom, raven, scarecrow
• Objects and places: bone, candle, cemetery, cobweb, lantern, mask, potion, tombstone
• Actions: carve, creep, disguise, haunt, howl, lurk, scare, shriek
• Atmosphere: dark, foggy, mysterious, shadowy, supernatural
• Friendly Halloween words: autumn, cat, colourful, costume, fairy, lantern, party, treat

The final group gives parents and teachers a child-friendly option without gore or frightening imagery. It also works for younger learners who need concrete words they can draw, point to, or act out.

Creepy and Spooky Halloween Words

Advanced adjectives are easier to use when you learn their strength and register alongside the definition. Try this rough scale from mildly unsettling to strongly frightening:

1. Eerie: strange in a way that makes you uneasy. “The empty playground was eerily quiet.”
2. Ominous: suggesting that something bad may happen. “Ominous clouds gathered over the house.”
3. Sinister: seeming evil or threatening. “A sinister laugh came from upstairs.”
4. Ghastly: shockingly unpleasant or frightening. “They found a ghastly mask in the attic.”
5. Terrifying: causing intense fear. “The final scene was terrifying.”
6. Bloodcurdling: extremely frightening, usually in dramatic storytelling. “A bloodcurdling scream broke the silence.”

Macabre describes something concerned with death or disturbing injury. Eldritch means strange and supernatural, and feels literary or old-fashioned. Phantasmagorical describes a shifting, dreamlike sequence of fantastic images; it does not automatically mean scary. Cadaverous means corpse-like in appearance, so it is better for fictional characters than for describing a real person.

To make these words active, keep the frame and swap the adjective: “The room looked eerie / ominous / sinister.” That small contrast teaches more than memorising three isolated definitions.

Festivals of Spirits and Remembrance Around the World

The festivals below share themes such as ancestors, spirits, seasonal change, fire, or costumes. They are not different countries' versions of Halloween. Each has its own history, religious context, and local practices.

Mexico: Día de Muertos

Día de Muertos honours deceased relatives and loved ones. Observances run from late October into early November and are especially associated with November 1 and 2. Practices vary by community, but families may prepare an ofrenda with food, candles, photographs, and cempasúchil marigolds.

• Ofrenda – an offering or altar prepared for the dead
• Calavera – a skull, including decorative skull imagery
• Cempasúchil – the marigold associated with the observance

Ireland: Samhain and Halloween

Samhain marks the beginning of winter in the traditional Irish calendar on November 1, with festivities held on the previous evening. Irish Halloween customs included disguises, games, pranks, food, and frightening lanterns carved from turnips. The familiar pumpkin lantern developed in America; it did not replace a “radish.” Modern Halloween also reflects the Christian calendar of All Hallows' Eve and later customs.

• Oíche Shamhna – Halloween, literally “Samhain night,” in Irish
• Báirín breac – a fruit loaf traditionally eaten at Halloween
• Púca – an otherworldly shape-shifting being in Irish folklore

China: 中元节 (Zhōngyuán Jié)

The Zhongyuan Festival is observed on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month and is often called the Ghost Festival in English. Customs differ across China. They may include remembering ancestors, making food offerings, lighting incense, and burning symbolic paper money. Modern authorities in some places encourage low-fire or fire-free forms of remembrance.

• 中元节 (Zhōngyuán Jié) – Zhongyuan Festival
• 冥钱 (míngqián) – symbolic money offered to the dead
• 祭祖 (jìzǔ) – to honour or make offerings to ancestors

Japan: お盆 (Obon)

Obon is a Buddhist-influenced summer period for welcoming and remembering ancestral spirits. Many regions observe it around August 15, while others use July dates. Customs can include returning to the family home, visiting graves, making offerings, dancing bon odori, and lighting welcoming or farewell fires.

• 盆踊り (bon odori) – dances held during the Obon season
• 迎え火 (mukaebi) – a welcoming fire
• 送り火 (okuribi) – a farewell fire

Germany: Walpurgisnacht

Walpurgisnacht falls on April 30, not in the Halloween season. In the Harz Mountains, present-day celebrations feature witches, devils, costumes, music, and fire. Folklore links witches with the Brocken mountain, also called the Blocksberg in legend. This is a spring celebration with supernatural imagery, not a remembrance festival.

• Hexe – witch
• Brocken – the mountain associated with the witches' gathering in folklore
• Walpurgisnacht – Walpurgis Night

Philippines: Pangangaluluwa

Pangangaluluwa is a regional tradition associated with the All Saints' Day period. Groups represent souls and go from house to house singing, asking for alms or prayers. It is sometimes compared with trick-or-treating because of the door-to-door movement, but its religious and community setting is different.

• Kaluluwa – soul
• Kakanin – a general term for Filipino rice cakes
• Pangangaluluwa – the house-to-house singing tradition

Halloween Words in Other Languages

Many languages borrow the English name Halloween. The door-call is less straightforward: some places translate it, some borrow trick or treat, and some do not have a widely established local custom. Treat the phrases below as useful, learner-friendly options rather than universal formulas.

Language	Halloween	“Trick or treat!”	Three useful words
Spanish	Halloween or Noche de Brujas	¡Truco o trato! is common in Spain; wording varies elsewhere	calabaza (pumpkin), fantasma (ghost), bruja (witch)
French	Halloween	Des bonbons ou un sort ! is used in France and Belgium; regional formulas vary	citrouille (pumpkin), fantôme (ghost), sorcière (witch)
German	Halloween	Süßes oder Saures!; you may also hear Süßes, sonst gibt's Saures!	Kürbis (pumpkin), Gespenst (ghost), Hexe (witch)
Italian	Halloween	Dolcetto o scherzetto?	zucca (pumpkin), fantasma (ghost), strega (witch)
Japanese	ハロウィーン / ハロウィン (Harowīn / Harowin)	トリック・オア・トリート！ (Torikku oa torīto!)	かぼちゃ (kabocha, pumpkin), お化け (obake, ghost or supernatural being), 魔女 (majo, witch)
Mandarin Chinese	万圣夜 (Wànshèngyè, Halloween night); 万圣节 (Wànshèngjié) is the common everyday label	不给糖就捣蛋！ (Bù gěi táng jiù dǎodàn!)	南瓜 (nánguā, pumpkin), 鬼 (guǐ, ghost), 女巫 (nǚwū, witch)
Russian	Хэллоуин (Khéllouin)	Russian has no single standard equivalent; Сладость или гадость? (Sládost' ili gádost'?) is one common rendering	тыква (týkva, pumpkin), привидение (prividéniye, ghost), ведьма (véd'ma, witch)

The Japanese phrase お菓子をくれなきゃ、いたずらするぞ！ means roughly “Give me sweets or I'll play a trick,” but the borrowed トリック・オア・トリート is the familiar Halloween call. For more nuance on お化け and related terms, see our guide to talking about ghosts in Japanese. Our French pronunciation guide can help with words such as fantôme and sorcière.

Fun Activities to Learn Halloween Words

A productive activity makes you retrieve a word, understand it in context, and say or write it. Choose a friendly word set for young children or anyone who dislikes scary themes. You can make these games collaborative, with the group trying to beat its previous score instead of competing against one another.

Halloween Word Bingo

Put vocabulary on a bingo card. Call out a definition, example, or sound instead of the word itself. A player who marks bat after hearing “a mammal that flies at night” has practised meaning as well as matching.

Spooky Story Chain

Write one opening sentence, then let each person add a sentence containing a word from the list. For a non-scary version, tell a story about a lost pumpkin, a friendly cat, or a costume party.

Halloween Charades

Act out verbs such as creep, howl, lurk, or carve. After someone guesses, ask them to use the word in a complete sentence.

Crossword Puzzles and Word Searches

A word search practises spelling recognition. A crossword is harder because the clues make you retrieve meaning. Make your own grid on paper, or give learners a blank grid and let them write the clues.

Halloween Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt

Hide pictures or safe household objects. Give clues such as “Find something orange that can become a jack-o'-lantern.” Players should say the target word before collecting the item.

Costume Description Challenge

Describe a costume without naming it. Child-friendly choices include a cat, fairy, robot, astronaut, dinosaur, pumpkin, or storybook character. Use a simple frame: “It has… It wears… It can…”

Spooky Spelling Bee

Say the word, use it in a sentence, and say it again. This makes the task fairer for learners and connects spelling with sound and meaning.

Halloween Mad Libs

Remove nouns, verbs, and adjectives from a short story. Ask for each part of speech before revealing the story. The strange results make grammar labels easier to remember.

Pumpkin Vocabulary

Write words on paper pumpkin shapes and sort them into creatures, objects, actions, and adjectives. Turn the cards face down for a memory game, matching a word with its definition.

Reuse the same words in two or three activities. Repeated retrieval works better than seeing a large list once. If you want a simple review system after the party, our guide to spaced repetition shows how to schedule later practice.

Happy Halloween, Whatever Your Language!

You do not need a hundred Halloween words to join a conversation. Learn eight to ten core terms, notice which phrases belong at the door and which belong on a card, then put them into your own sentences.

When you add another language, learn the local phrase with its context. A direct translation may be understandable without being what people usually say. Ask a tutor or language exchange partner what they hear where they live.

Pick your first eight words now, say each one aloud, and write a two-sentence spooky or friendly story. Happy Halloween!