Word
ghost
US/ˈɡoʊst/
UK/ɡˈəʊst/
Definitions
01spirit of a dead person
n. the spirit of a person who has died, which some people believe can be seen or heard.
n. the disembodied soul or spirit of a deceased person, typically appearing as a visible apparition.
“The old castle is famous because people say they have seen a ghost in the tower.”
“Local folklore suggests that the ghost of the former countess still wanders the corridors, searching for her lost letters.”
Synonyms
02a faint trace
n. a very slight amount or a faint image of something.
n. a slight trace, shadowy semblance, or faint secondary image, such as a reflection in a lens.
“There was just a ghost of a smile on his face when he heard the news.”
“The old photograph was so damaged that only a ghost of the original landscape remained visible under the light.”
03to stop communicating
v. to suddenly stop all communication with someone you were dating or talking to, without any explanation.
v. to abruptly terminate all communication with a person, particularly in a romantic context, without prior warning or justification.
“I thought our date went well, but then he ghosted me and never replied to my texts.”
“In the era of digital dating, it has become increasingly common for individuals to ghost their partners rather than engage in a difficult conversation about ending the relationship.”
Informal · Slang
05empty or abandoned
adj. used to describe a place that is empty because everyone has left it.
adj. describing a place or entity that is abandoned or exists in name only, often used in 'ghost town'.
“After the gold mine closed, the busy village quickly became a ghost town.”
“The developers left behind a ghost estate of half-finished houses when the funding for the project suddenly dried up.”
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English gost, from Old English gāst, gǣst (“breath, spirit, soul, ghost”) (compare modern English Holy Ghost), from Proto-West Germanic gaist, from Proto-Germanic gaistaz, from Proto-Indo-European ǵʰéysdos, from ǵʰéysd- (“anger, agitation”). The h in the spelling appears in the Prologue to William Caxton’s Royal Book, printed in 1484, in a reference to the “Holy Ghoost”. It was likely influenced by Middle Dutch gheest, a common variant of geest. Both Caxton and his assistant Wynkyn de Worde had connections to the Low Countries. Doublet of geist. The adjective and verb are derived from the noun. The verb gained prominence in the 2010s. cognates * Danish gast (“ghost”), gejst (“enthusiasm”) * Dutch geest (“ghost, spirit”) * German Geist (“ghost, spirit”) * Luxembourgish Geescht (“ghost, spirit, spectre, phantom”) * Saterland Frisian Gäist, Jeest (“ghost, spirit”) * Scots gaist, ghaist (“ghost”) * Swedish gast (“ghost”) * Vilamovian gȧjst (“ghost, spirit”) * West Frisian geast (“ghost, spirit”) * Yiddish גײַסט (gayst, “ghost, spirit”) * Yola gaast (“ghost”)
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Word family
Related words
Idioms
ghost at the feast — A presence that mars one's enjoyment by causing guilt or reviving unwelcome memories.
ghost from one's past — Something unpleasant from one's past that "haunts" them (makes them feel uneasy) to the present day.
ghost home — A residence intentionally kept vacant by an absentee owner, especially a foreign investor, as a financially safe asset to be liquidated at a convenient time.
give up the ghost — To cease clinging to life; to die.
yield the ghost — To give up the ghost.
yield up the ghost — For a person, to die.
The word in film
Ghost · 1990 · Romance
- Directed by:
- Jerry Zucker
- Starring:
- Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Swayze
Patrick Swayze stars in this romantic drama as a murdered man who remains on Earth in a spiritual form to protect his girlfriend. With the help of a psychic played by Whoopi Goldberg, he tries to communicate with the living world from beyond the grave.