adjective
-
of or resembling a ghost; spectral
a ghostly face appeared at the window
-
suggesting the presence of ghosts; eerie
-
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:
They hinted at a darker, more gothic aesthetic, with lyrics haunted by ghostly figures and existential crises.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
New Theater Hollywood’s ‘California Gothic: A Bus Tour’ periodically invites riders to meet ghostly street performers and ponder the death of the California dream.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
The algae provide coral's characteristic colours, and their departure leaves behind a ghostly white structure that is gradually starving.
From Barron's ● May 22, 2026
The list of wonders begins with the Quiet Storm: the handbuilt 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8, summoning 577 ghostly horses with soft-soled trainers on their hooves, galloping across the countryside and destroying driving records.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026
Most women would be offended to be mistaken for the ghostly apparition, but she did not flinch at the horrific namesake.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
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
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 Webb, Mary Gladys Meredith
Night darkens, , and again the Southern Cross glimmers before our prow, and the two Milky Ways reveal themselves,—that of the Cosmos and that ghostlier one which stretches over the black deep behind us.
From Two Years in the French West Indies by Hearn, Lafcadio
Is Europe's ghostliest train station about to rise again?
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2022
I stood in front of them and did the ghostliest things till I was clean tired out and discouraged.
From Humorous Ghost Stories by Scarborough, Dorothy
"You are the ghostliest thing I've ever known," said David with a nervous laugh of relief.
From The Rose in the Ring by McCutcheon, George Barr
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 Connor, Ralph
It was the strangest, ghostliest thing he had ever seen!
From Warlock o' Glenwarlock by MacDonald, George
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.
