ghastly
Americanadjective
-
ghastlier,
comparative
-
ghastliest
superlative
-
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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
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
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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.
See Examples For:
As the Wehrmacht fought these ghastly battles in the western U.S.S.R., it was also fighting the British in North Africa.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
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
In an interview to mark the fifth anniversary of Everard's murder, Sir Mark said "several ghastly cases of police officers committing awful offences against women" were bound to affect people's trust in the Met Police.
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2026
Meanwhile, the sumptuous imagery and amiable pacing of “Wuthering Heights” trounce del Toro’s ghastly slog of a film.
From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2026
I attended to all the ghastly formalities, and the urbane undertaker proved that his staff were afflicted—or blessed—with something of his own obsequious suavity.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
Not least because, given various developing news stories relating to our hosts, the tournament has rather ghastlier noises-off than usual.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 11, 2018
Now investigators believe that both versions have a piece of the even ghastlier truth.
From Time Magazine Archive
Sigmund Freud himself could not have contrived a ghastlier childhood for a poet.
From Time Magazine Archive
No ghastlier picture of a nation's misery has ever been painted than that which closes the English Chronicle whose last accents falter out amidst the horrors of the time.
From History of the English People, Volume I Early England, 449-1071; Foreign Kings, 1071-1204; The Charter, 1204-1216 by John Richard Green
I never saw ghastlier fear on human cheeks.
From Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
Minnesota will try to revive its fading playoff hopes four days after one of the ghastliest losses of the season, a 29-27 defeat Sunday to the previously winless Detroit Lions.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 9, 2021
They made it to the Super Bowl in 2014, only to have the ghastliest ending in football history against the Patriots.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 9, 2021
It was that ghastliest of hours — 3 a.m. — bedtime a distant memory and daylight an eternity away.
From New York Times ● Oct. 30, 2020
Native American activists said it trivialized one of the ghastliest episodes in Dakota indigenous history.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2017
Nothing could exceed the discord of vituperation, the Hebraism of Carlyle denouncing the Vaticanism of Wiseman, "Free Kirk and other rubbish" pitted against "Comtism, ghastliest of algebraic spectralities."
From Some Diversions of a Man of Letters by Edmund Gosse
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