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:
One figure is cloaked in ghostly white, the fabric’s surface dotted with antique metal ex-votos, religious offerings made for divine protection.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
“The Governor’s Waltz” is a dreamy folk track about the stress of performance and desire for connection, with ghostly backing vocals and a piano that sounds like a series of tuned bells.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 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
They hinted at a darker, more gothic aesthetic, with lyrics haunted by ghostly figures and existential crises.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
The one of the ghostly figure with a glowing lantern, standing on top of the bluff.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
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
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
As the light in her room grew ghostlier, Princess Sophia's voice became gradually incoherent, dropped to a vague whisper, and finally ceased.
From The Genius by Margaret Horton Potter
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 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
"You are the ghostliest thing I've ever known," said David with a nervous laugh of relief.
From The Rose in the Ring by George Barr McCutcheon
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
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.
