The DICT Development Group

  Bete noire \B[^e]te" noire"\ [Fr., lit. black beast.]
     Something especially hated or dreaded; a bugbear.
     [1913 Webster]

  65 Moby Thesaurus words for "bete noire":
     Dracula, Frankenstein, Mumbo Jumbo, Wolf-man, affliction, anathema,
     bane, bogey, bogeyman, boggart, bogle, booger, boogerman,
     boogeyman, bug, bugaboo, bugbear, bugger, burden, calamity,
     crushing burden, curse, death, destruction, detestation, disease,
     evil, fee-faw-fum, frightener, ghost, ghoul, grievance, harm, hate,
     hobgoblin, holy terror, horror, incubus, infliction, monster,
     nemesis, nightmare, ogre, ogress, open wound, pest, pestilence,
     phantom, plague, revenant, running sore, scarebabe, scarecrow,
     scarer, scourge, specter, succubus, terror, thorn, torment,
     vampire, vexation, visitation, werewolf, woe