Prophetic spectre in play (9)
I believe the answer is:
prescient
'prophetic' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'spectre in play' is the wordplay.
'play' is an anagram indicator.
'spectre'+'in'='spectrein'
'spectrein' anagrammed gives 'PRESCIENT'.
(Other definitions for prescient that I've seen before include "Able to predict events" , "Showing knowledge of events before they take place" , "Foreknowing" , "prophetic?" , "Certainly dealing in futures" .)