DictionaryAI

ghost

SayGOHST/ɡoʊst/UK/ɡəʊst/

Pluralghosts

Verbghosts, ghosting, ghosted

36 meanings of ghost

Practice

  1. 1
    dead person's spiritnouncountable or uncountable
    The soul or spirit of a dead person, especially one imagined as appearing to the living after death.

    Local legends claim the ghost of a drowned sailor walks the pier at night.

    He insisted that a ghost had moved the furniture while he slept.

    UsageYou believe in ghosts, and a house is haunted by a ghost.

    Similarspirit, phantom, apparition, specter, spook

    Note

    The apparition meaning narrowed out of a much wider word. Coleridge's mariner, waking so light he almost believes he "was a blessed ghost," still leans toward the older 'soul' meaning. Among its neighbors, revenant stresses a return from death, phantom and specter the appearance, and spook is the casual word.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The apparition sense developed from a broader historical meaning. en.wikipedia.org
    • The mariner is a character in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. gutenberg.org
    • The mariner uses the exact words 'was a blessed ghost' when imagining himself as a departed soul. gutenberg.org
  2. 2
    nouncountable or uncountablebefore a noun
    Used before a noun for something thought to be of supernatural, unexplained, or extraterrestrial origin.

    Ghost lights have been reported drifting over the marsh for more than a century.

    Sweden saw a wave of ghost rocket sightings in the summer of 1946.

    Similarphantom

  3. 3
    abandonednouncountable or uncountablebefore a noun
    Of a place or vessel: completely abandoned and left empty after its inhabitants or crew have departed.

    Tourists wander the ghost town's silent streets, peering into long-shuttered shops.

    The coast guard towed in the ghost vessel found adrift with no one aboard.

    UsageMostly in ghost town and ghost ship.

    Note

    In this sense, ghost town and ghost ship name places and vessels emptied of people, not haunted ones, though ghost ship can also mean a phantom vessel. A ghost town needs no ghosts, only absence. The image is of a place still standing after its life has gone. That is why the pairing suits towns and vessels found deserted, with streets intact or a hull adrift and no one aboard.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

  4. 4
    cut contactverbslangfigurativelytransitive
    To cut off all communication with someone without explanation, especially over social media or text, as a way of ending a relationship.

    After a month of dating, he simply ghosted her, never answering another text or explaining why.

    Recruiters sometimes ghost candidates rather than send a polite rejection.

    UsageOften passive: get ghosted or be ghosted by someone. Still informal at work.

    Similarignore, drop

    Note

    Slang that spread through dating apps and messaging, where silence is the whole act. It can also stand alone: in Ling Ma's Severance (2018), the narrator "hadn't meant to ghost."

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  5. 5
    faint likenessnouncountable or uncountable
    A faint trace, shadow, or likeness of something, with little real substance left.

    Through the heavy fog, the distant church tower was only a pale ghost.

    The cheap mirror threw back only a ghost of her reflection.

    UsageMostly in the ghost of a + noun; not a ghost of a chance means no chance at all.

    Similarshadow, trace, hint, suggestion, semblance

    Note

    Poe's "The Raven" (1845) keeps the image visual, with each dying ember working "its ghost upon the floor."

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Edgar Allan Poe wrote The Raven, first published in 1845. en.wikipedia.org
    • The poem describes each dying ember producing 'its ghost upon the floor'; the quoted words are exact. eapoe.org
  6. 6
    write for someoneverbtransitive
    To write a literary or artistic work, or carry out a performance, in another person's place, with that person receiving the credit.

    He ghosted the singer's bestselling autobiography without ever being named.

    Studio musicians often ghost solos that famous guitarists later mime on stage.

    UsageTakes for to name the credited person: ghosting for a star.

    Similarghostwrite

    Note

    The verb reaches beyond books to voices. In film musicals, hidden singers ghosted songs that stars lip-synched. The Golden Age of Musicals (1999) praises Ava Gardner in Show Boat (1951) as one of the few performers to triumph over ghosting. Saul Bellow's Humboldt's Gift (1975) calls a famous play "half ghosted."

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • Film musicals used substitute singers for stars' singing performances. en.wikipedia.org
    • The Golden Age of Musicals, dated 1999, praises Gardner's performance despite its ghosted singing. en.wiktionary.org
    • Show Boat featuring Ava Gardner was released in 1951. en.wikipedia.org
    • Humboldt's Gift is a 1975 novel by Saul Bellow. en.wikipedia.org
    • The novel describes a famous play as half ghosted; Denise says this to Charlie Citrine. pbs.org
  7. 7
    hired writernouncountable or uncountableabbreviationellipsis
    Short form of ghostwriter: a writer hired to produce a book, speech, or article that is published under someone else's name.

    The publisher hired a ghost to finish the autobiography on schedule.

    Many sports memoirs are produced by a ghost working quietly behind the scenes.

    UsageUse for to name the person receiving credit: a ghost for a politician.

    Note

    Publishing and journalism clip ghostwriter to a single syllable. That work stands in contrast to writing under one's own name. The verb to ghost a book describes the same trade without the agent noun.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

  8. 8
    nouncountable or uncountablebefore a noun
    Something or someone that is perceived or listed but does not really exist, such as a false radar contact or a made-up name used in a fraud.

    The audit uncovered dozens of ghost employees who drew pay but never existed.

    Old sonar systems often reported ghost contacts where nothing was present.

    Similarphantom

    Note

    Two kinds of unreality share the pattern. Ghost pain and a ghost cellphone vibration are felt though nothing is there to produce them. A ghost voter or a ghost island appears in a record but not in the world. The listed kind includes the invented person used for fraud, and a ghost voter can be exactly such a person.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • These sensations lack their apparent source; that does not make them causeless. Proposed mechanisms for phantom limb pain include abnormal nerve impulses. uhsussex.nhs.uk
    • A ghost cellphone vibration is a felt sensation. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
    • A ghost island appears in a record but does not exist. en.wikipedia.org
    • Ghost voter can also describe an electoral entry for someone who has moved or died; it need not represent an invented person. publications.parliament.uk
    • Ghost can denote an invented person used for fraud. en.wiktionary.org
  9. 9
    nouncountable or uncountablebefore a noun
    Of a pale, whitish coloration, suggestive of a phantom's hue.

    She chose a soft ghost white for the bedroom walls.

    The ghost moth's wings shone a pale, silvery white.

    Note

    Naturalists put the word before a noun as a color term in species names: ghost slug, ghost flower. Here it means pale or white, the classic look of a specter. The see-through species use names a different quality, so a ghost catfish is translucent rather than merely pale.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

  10. 10
    lens reflectionnouncountable or uncountable
    A faint unwanted second image in a picture, caused by reflections in a lens or a reflected TV signal.

    Our old antenna picked up a reflected signal, so every face on the TV had a faint ghost beside it.

    A stray ghost appeared in the image each time light struck the front element at an angle.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of ghost apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

The noun descends from Middle English gost, from Old English gāst or gǣst ("breath, spirit, soul, ghost"), going back through Proto-West Germanic *gaist and Proto-Germanic *gaistaz to Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysd- ("anger, agitation"); it is a doublet of geist and related to German Geist and Dutch geest. The 'h' in the spelling appears in Caxton's Royal Book, a translation he finished in 1484, and was likely influenced by Middle Dutch gheest. The adjective and verb derive from the noun, with the verb gaining prominence in the 2010s.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 10 facts

  • The noun descends through Middle English gost from Old English gāst. en.wiktionary.org
  • Old English also had the form gǣst. en.wiktionary.org
  • The Old English noun meant breath, spirit, soul or ghost. en.wikipedia.org
  • The reconstructed ancestry includes Proto-West Germanic *gaist, Proto-Germanic *gaistaz and the Indo-European root *ǵʰéysd-, associated with anger and agitation. en.wiktionary.org
  • Ghost and geist are doublets. en.wiktionary.org
  • German Geist and Dutch geest share the noun's Germanic ancestry. en.wiktionary.org
  • The spelling with h occurs in Caxton's Royal Book and was probably influenced by Middle Dutch gheest. en.wiktionary.org
  • Caxton finished translating the Royal Book in 1484. gutenberg.org
  • The adjective and verb derive from the noun. en.wiktionary.org
  • The verb became prominent in the 2010s, particularly in the sense of ending communication. en.wikipedia.org