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:
By 1996, Torres would release her first single, “No Reason to Cry,” a punchy, melodramatic dance track ghostly vocals that reassure someone of her love.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
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
Then I caught the patient’s eye and followed it, but could trace nothing as it looked into the moonlit sky except a big bat, which was flapping its silent and ghostly way to the west.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
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
At last they realised the light was already fading; the mist on all things was ghostlier, and damp in the throat and nostrils.
From An Engagement of Convenience A Novel by Louis Zangwill
His shadow proves he was no ghost; but a ghost 138 was never ghostlier than he.
From Oxford Lectures on Poetry by Andrew Cecil Bradley
Is Europe's ghostliest train station about to rise again?
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2022
What I shall do with the young cub I have not the ghostliest shadow of an idea.
From Glengarry School Days: a story of early days in Glengarry by Ralph Connor
It was the strangest, ghostliest thing he had ever seen!
From Warlock o' Glenwarlock by George MacDonald
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
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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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
