noun

ghost

gohst

noun

The soul of a dead person believed to appear to or haunt the living.

"She swore she saw a ghost drifting through the old hallway."

"The town is famous for its ghost stories."

verb

To suddenly stop all communication with someone, especially in a relationship, without any explanation.

"He ghosted her after their third date."

"It's cruel to ghost someone instead of just saying it's over."

To secretly write or produce work credited to someone else (short for ghostwrite).

"The celebrity memoir was actually ghosted by a professional writer."

To make a visual element look faint or grayed-out to show it can't currently be used.

"The submit button is ghosted until you fill in every field."

How to Use Ghost

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishMost often the spirit of a dead person said to linger and appear to the living; in modern slang, to vanish from someone's life by cutting off contact with no warning.

Common mistake

The dating slang sense ("he ghosted me") is very recent — don't assume it applies in older texts, where "ghost" almost always means a spirit or apparition.

Common pairings

ghost story see a ghost ghost someone ghost town

Word Forms

ghosted past tense, ghosts singular

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Fill the Gap

Can you complete this real example?

She swore she saw a _____ drifting through the old hallway.

Etymology

From Old English gast, meaning breath, spirit, or soul — the same root behind "Holy Ghost." The silent "h" crept into the spelling in the late 1400s, likely from printers influenced by Dutch. The "stop replying without explanation" sense only became common in the 2010s.

Rhymes for ghost

most cost lost host post Dost Yost frost roost boost Prost almost

See all rhymes for ghost →