close encounters
Brushes with others
Close encounters are meetings or near-meetings with something unusual or potentially dangerous—most often UFOs or extraterrestrial beings.
The phrase gained currency from the 1977 film *Close Encounters of the Third Kind*, which popularized a classification system: close encounters of the first kind (sighting), second kind (physical evidence), and third kind (contact).
The term now applies broadly to any startling brush with the unfamiliar: I had a close encounter with a bear on the trail.
- aliensBeings from other worlds
- little green menCartoonish alien stereotype
- abductionUnlawful seizure of person
- alien encountersContact with otherworldly visitors
- UFO sightingsReported observations of unidentified craft
third kind · night sky · bright lights · Area 51 · extraterrestrial · alien life · Roswell incident · SETI · science fiction · out of this world · crop circles · first contact · ancient astronauts · Steven Spielberg · proximity · alien spacecraft · alien civilizations · spaceship
- UFOsUFO, flying saucers, UFOs, flying saucer, space aliens
- Alien Lifeextraterrestrial life, extraterrestrial intelligence, alien intelligence, first contact, biosignatures
- UFO LoreUFOs, flying saucers, alien abduction, alien abductions, Roswell
- paranormalghosts, paranormal, haunting, poltergeist, apparition
- space fictionscience fiction, spaceship, sci-fi, astronaut, space adventure
close encountersnear misses
Narrowly avoided incidents
missed connections · fleeting moments · narrow escapes · non-contact · ships passing in the night
close, closed, closing, encounter, closer, closeness, enclosure, closes, enclosed