ghastly
Americanadjective
-
shockingly frightful or dreadful; horrible.
a ghastly murder.
-
resembling a ghost, especially in being very pale.
a ghastly look to his face.
- Synonyms:
- cadaverous, pallid, deathlike
-
terrible; very bad.
a ghastly error.
adverb
-
Also ghastlily ghastily in a ghastly manner; horribly; terribly.
-
with a deathlike quality.
adjective
-
informal very bad or unpleasant
-
deathly pale; wan
-
informal extremely unwell; ill
they felt ghastly after the party
-
terrifying; horrible
adverb
-
unhealthily; sickly
ghastly pale
-
archaic in a horrible or hideous manner
Usage
What does ghastly mean? Ghastly means dreadful, horrible, terrible, or shockingly frightful. Ghastly is more common in everyday usage in the U. K. than in the U. S., but it is used in the same ways in both places. It can be applied in a range of serious and not-so-serious ways. Ghastly can also mean resembling a ghost due to being very pale. Less commonly, it can be used as an adverb. Example: Our dinner was positively ghastly—all the food was underseasoned and overcooked until it was nearly inedible.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ghastly
Explanation
Something that's ghastly isn't just gross. It's shockingly, horrifyingly unpleasant — so gruesome and grisly that it makes you want to puke. An adjective used to describe that which inspires visions of death and feelings of revulsion, ghastly originated circa 1300. It is very close in meaning to the similarly spelled ghostly. In fact, the word in Old English was originally spelled gastli. But over the years, people confused gastli with ghost, began to adopt the gh- spelling. But don't you forget the "h" - that would be a ghastly spelling error on your part.
Vocabulary lists containing ghastly
"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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"The Open Window"
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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.
While adamantly miserabilist, it does have a plot or at least one shocking plot point that’s so ghastly it made me giddy.
From Los Angeles Times • May 19, 2026
Target’s collection, on the other hand, is one of the most ghastly sartorial abominations ever made, let alone sold for real money.
From Salon • Apr. 20, 2026
His penance is to “pass, like night, from land to land,” repeating his story: “And till my ghastly tale is told, / This heart within me burns.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 16, 2026
Some conservative backlash seems to come from the idea that Kirk’s page should double as an online memorial, smoothing away his edges out of respect for the ghastly way he died.
From Slate • Sep. 17, 2025
She was very, very pale—almost ghastly, and so thin that her lips were drawn away, showing her teeth in somewhat of prominence.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
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.
