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
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 duo studied dusty LPs from Mexico and Colombia and employed a panoply of vintage keyboards to re-create the ghostly sounds of a Latin America that ceased to exist decades ago.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Most of the ghostly legionnaires were still wandering around in a daze.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
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
It wandered further, and finding a golden head that tossed restlessly upon a silk-covered pillow, it alighted on it, making the white face appear ghostlier still, and the wide eyes to shine like stars.
From "Unto Caesar" by Emmuska Orczy, Baroness Orczy
No Australian Bushman cares to camp in an abandoned homestead, or even near it—probably because a deserted home looks ghostlier in the Australian Bush than anywhere else in the world.
From Joe Wilson and His Mates by Henry Lawson
Is Europe's ghostliest train station about to rise again?
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2022
I stood in front of them and did the ghostliest things till I was clean tired out and discouraged.
From Humorous Ghost Stories by Dorothy Scarborough
He had walked in total unconsciousness, neither hearing nor seeing anybody or anything, and without a thought of where he was going, or the ghostliest semblance of a purpose in his mind.
From Ben-Hur; a tale of the Christ by Lewis Wallace
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
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