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
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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.
See Examples For:
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
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
Tell me the backstory of that spooky song.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2026
He’s not there, so I walk by Sierpiński Sonnet, a kind of spooky sculpture made of white resin.
From "Merci Suárez Changes Gears" by Meg Medina
At the time, Imagineering wanted to update a relatively “common” chandelier with a spookier, spider web-inspired look.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2025
While Ortega wore a bright pink Valentino dress to last year's Met Gala, this year she went with a distinctly spookier and more gothic vibe.
From BBC ● May 2, 2023
A more apt slogan for these games might be lonelier, quieter, spookier.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 19, 2022
The whole thing seems like fertile ground for del Toro, who’s drawn to the stranger, spookier corners of the imagination.
From New York Times ● Dec. 15, 2021
Somehow, seeing her like this was even spookier than seeing her as a mummy.
From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan
Rather, they are merely Halloween-inspired, containing candies that are shaped like bats and cats — undeniably two of the spookiest creatures.
From Salon ● Sep. 29, 2025
Not any more, now that I put together this guide to what to do in and around New York City during the year’s spookiest month.
From New York Times ● Sep. 30, 2023
Consolidation has long been the publishing industry’s buzziest, and probably spookiest, existential threat.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2023
The spookiest weekend of the year is finally here!
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 26, 2021
It gits almighty cold there in September, an' it was sure the spookiest show I ever seen.
From Humorous Ghost Stories by Dorothy Scarborough
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.
