The Spectre of Something Is a Scary Thing

Inflation and recession concoction sends global markets into the mire. And you're probably wondering, neil, why are we talking about ghosts? Yes, i am. Is it because a ghost is a scary thing? Well, yes, it is. The spectre of something is the possibility of something bad happening. So in this case, it's a possible recession. But could we also use this for more light arted situations? For example, the spectre of my dentist appointment next week? No, not really. We use this expression for unpleasant things that may happen in the future, and will probably happen to a lot of people. By the way, there's a spelling