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:
Its ghostly skull may be one of Antarctica's most unusual sights, but the gradual transformation of the ice that shapes it tells an even more important story.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2026
Back in Setagaya, Ryua says she is happy living with her ghostly flatmate.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026
The experience of pilgrimage became a ritual, and there’s a ghostly quality to these pictures.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 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
The northern lights cast a ghostly green color over the white world ahead of them until dark clouds rolled in and it began to snow, making it hard to see.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
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
So the Brook to Telka cried, But my Telka naught replied; And, as in a strange affright, Paled the Rose a ghostlier white.
From Second Book of Verse by Eugene Field
Is Europe's ghostliest train station about to rise again?
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2022
It was her turn to smile, the palest, ghostliest of smiles, and even for so much she must have been oddly moved.
From The Strolling Saint; being the confessions of the high and mighty Agostino D'Anguissola, tyrant of Mondolfo and Lord of Carmina in the state of Piacenza by Rafael Sabatini
Dead, in the ghostliest sense of the word,—the viewless pressure upon her life of numberless vanished generations.
From Japan: an Attempt at Interpretation by Lafcadio Hearn
It was the strangest, ghostliest thing he had ever seen!
From Warlock o' Glenwarlock by George MacDonald
When I went there, I had the queerest, ghostliest sensation of having seen it all before.
From Lafcadio Hearn by Nina H. Kennard
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