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:
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
Misinterpreting his ghostly prophecy—“Macbeth shall never vanquished be until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill / Shall come against him”—the usurping Scottish king believed his reign was secure.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
For Taran, the horror beating in him like black wings came not from the livid features of the Cauldron warriors or their lightless eyes but from their ghostly silence.
From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander
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
Grave players on ethereal harpsichords, My senses wrought a music exquisite As patterned roses, all my life's accords Were richer, ghostlier than peacocks white.
From The Hours of Fiammetta A Sonnet Sequence by Rachel Annand Taylor
Undern grew ghostlier than ever, seeming, as the shots rang out startlingly loud in the quiet, like a moribund creature electrified by blows.
From Gone to Earth by Mary Gladys Meredith Webb
Is Europe's ghostliest train station about to rise again?
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2022
Dead rich purples cloud broadly behind and above the indigo blackness of the serrated hills—mist purples, fading upward smokily into faint vermilions and dim gold, which again melt up through ghostliest greens into the blue.
From Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan First Series by Lafcadio Hearn
It was as if all the ghosts in Hades had suddenly piped up at their shrillest and ghostliest.
From The Yeoman Adventurer by George W. Gough
When I went there, I had the queerest, ghostliest sensation of having seen it all before.
From Lafcadio Hearn by Nina H. Kennard
I stood in front of them and did the ghostliest things till I was clean tired out and discouraged.
From Humorous Ghost Stories by Dorothy Scarborough
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