adjective
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of or resembling a ghost; spectral
a ghostly face appeared at the window
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suggesting the presence of ghosts; eerie
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archaic of or relating to the soul or spirit
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ghostly
before 900; Middle English; Old English gāstlīc. See ghost, -ly
Explanation
Something ghostly looks or sounds like a ghost — strange and chilling. A ghostly figure appearing out of the fog can seem slightly unearthly. Distant, ghostly music sometimes echoes through an empty subway station, and ghostly voices can often be heard in stairwells or hallways, seeming to come from nowhere. Even your neighbor's glowing TV screen can appear ghostly on a dark night. The Old English root of ghostly is gastlic, which means "spiritual, holy, or not of the flesh," and also "supernatural."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But he quickly finds that his medical terminology and prescriptions are of little use to the patients troubled by ghostly memories.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
The subtropical southern Japanese region boasts some of the world's most biodiverse hubs of normally multicoloured coral, but a 2024 marine heatwave created "graveyards" of ghostly pale or sickly brown organisms.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
They hinted at a darker, more gothic aesthetic, with lyrics haunted by ghostly figures and existential crises.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
“Outgoing,” said Oleh Ihnatiyev, one of the fishermen, as the ice emitted a ghostly howl.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
The movie ended with George, overwhelmed by despair, calling up Margery’s ghostly image until he fell over dead himself.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
At 60 minutes, the production is not quite as tight as it could be; its shifts into Bete’s childhood, and other, ghostlier realms don’t always persuade.
From New York Times ● Aug. 26, 2021
Soon Anna and Vronsky and a few ghostlier figures are languishing in the corners of the tidy condo she shares with her dentist husband and school-age son.
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2017
Yet nothing is ghostlier than the hawk itself.
From Slate ● Mar. 6, 2015
As the light in her room grew ghostlier, Princess Sophia's voice became gradually incoherent, dropped to a vague whisper, and finally ceased.
From The Genius by Margaret Horton Potter
Night darkens, , and again the Southern Cross glimmers before our prow, and the two Milky Ways reveal themselves,—that of the Cosmos and that ghostlier one which stretches over the black deep behind us.
From Two Years in the French West Indies by Lafcadio Hearn
Is Europe's ghostliest train station about to rise again?
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2022
It was the strangest, ghostliest thing he had ever seen!
From Warlock o' Glenwarlock by George MacDonald
It was as if all the ghosts in Hades had suddenly piped up at their shrillest and ghostliest.
From The Yeoman Adventurer by George W. Gough
When I went there, I had the queerest, ghostliest sensation of having seen it all before.
From Lafcadio Hearn by Nina H. Kennard
Dead rich purples cloud broadly behind and above the indigo blackness of the serrated hills—mist purples, fading upward smokily into faint vermilions and dim gold, which again melt up through ghostliest greens into the blue.
From Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan First Series by Lafcadio Hearn
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
