In Supernatural literature and folklore, a revenant is a dead person who comes back, usually in bodily or ghostly form. Unlike a general ghost, a revenant often emphasizes the act of return and may be connected to unfinished duties, debts, memories, love, or vengeance. In poetry, the term can also be used more spiritually or metaphorically, describing a soul returning through rebirth rather than a frightening undead figure.

Revenant comes from the French revenant, meaning “returning” or “one who returns.” In folklore, revenants may resemble ghosts, corpses, vampires, or other dead beings who revisit the world of the living. A revenant differs from a ghost in that a ghost is generally any spirit of a dead person, while a revenant specifically stresses return after death. The word can carry eerie or Gothic associations, but poets may use it in gentler spiritual contexts, especially when writing about reincarnation, memory, unresolved love, or life after death. Related terms include ghost, apparition, specter, wraith, undead, and reincarnated soul.