adjective
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ghostly or eerie
a spooky house
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resembling or appropriate to a ghost
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easily frightened; highly strung
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of spooky
Explanation
Spooky things make a shiver go down your spine—they're scary or creepy. A movie's spooky music might be enough to make you cover your eyes in fear. This informal adjective is perfect for talking about things that make you feel afraid or deeply uneasy. Haunted houses are spooky, and the sound of quiet footsteps crunching through the leaves outside your tent at night are spooky too—at least until your brother yells, "Boo!" You can also use spooky to mean "easily spooked," like a nervous horse that jumps at the slightest sound.
Vocabulary lists containing spooky
October Words
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Strange
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Strange
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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.
Coherence is also closely tied to quantum entanglement, the phenomenon that prompted Albert Einstein to describe it as "spooky action at a distance."
From Science Daily • Jul. 5, 2026
The question of whether Summerween makes Halloween less special, and whether the calendar year is big enough for two spooky seasons, is personal — but it also speaks to a cultural obsession with consumption.
From Salon • Jun. 30, 2026
Lage’s playing was tender and spooky, not least in “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven,” where every 30 seconds or so the chords would go in some direction I could never have predicted.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 19, 2026
The "spooky" note, dated to 1964, said the coins were winnings from a horse called Santa Claus that ran that year.
From BBC • Jun. 6, 2026
It was spooky, like seeing a ghost floating facedown in the water.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
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.
