haunted

American  

[hawn-tid, hahn-] / ˈhɔn tɪd, ˈhɑn- /

adjective

1. inhabited or frequented by ghosts.

   a haunted castle.

2. preoccupied, as with an emotion, memory, or idea; obsessed.

   His haunted imagination gave him no peace.

3. disturbed; distressed; worried.

   Haunted by doubt he again turned to law books on the subject.

---

haunted British  

/ ˈhɔːntɪd /

adjective

1. frequented or visited by ghosts

2. (postpositive) obsessed or worried

---

Other Word Forms

• unhaunted
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of haunted

Middle English word dating back to 1275–1325; see origin at haunt, -ed ²

Explanation

Something that's haunted seems to have ghosts. Visiting a scary haunted house is a great, if terrifying, way to spend Halloween night. Ghosts, or spooky apparitions, are what makes a place haunted. You might truly believe your grandparents' house is haunted, or it might just seem that way because of the scary creaks and groans in the night, the cobwebs in dark corners, and the dim lighting. You can also describe a person as haunted when she's obsessed with or tormented by something: "I was haunted by the memory of my cat killing that poor mouse."

Example Sentences

Diamond wrote this waltz-time weeper with Carole Bayer Sager, who beat him to the punch with her own recording; his version is haunted, hers downright macabre.

From Los Angeles Times • May 6, 2026

If you were told the building was haunted, you might attribute that agitation to something supernatural.

From Science Daily • May 3, 2026

While Japan was long haunted by deflation, it has more recently faced a surge in living costs.

From Barron's • Apr. 26, 2026

We get no sense of the man’s haunted determination—no hints of those hellhounds.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 26, 2026

I nodded, and we both began to wade through the waist-high shallows, fleeing the desperate haunted ships behind us.

From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia

Related Words

• obsessed