ghost town
noun
a town permanently abandoned by its inhabitants, as because of a business decline or because a nearby mine has been worked out.
ghost towns
-
pluralof ghost town.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
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.
A major military operation against criminal gangs in southeastern Venezuela has left a trail of ghost towns and abandoned mines in its wake.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
Winds are slowly blowing sand into the 75-mile trench meant to hold a bullet train, while once-bustling worker camps have turned to ghost towns, one former employee said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026
The raids rendered some L.A. neighborhoods ghost towns, with businesses shuttered and customers few and far between, as people stayed home out of fear of being targeted.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2025
“But if you go 20 minutes from the medical school, you see communities that are like ghost towns, where their industries have died and there are no jobs.”
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 29, 2024
There was a time, not very long ago, in the desperately poor New York City neighborhoods of Brownsville and East New York, when the streets would turn into ghost towns at dusk.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
