ghostly
adj.adj. looking or sounding like a ghost. You use this to describe something pale, quiet, or scary in a way that reminds you of a spirit.
adj. resembling or characteristic of a ghost, particularly in being faint, pale, or ethereal. Often describes visual or auditory phenomena that lack physical substance.
A ghostly figure appeared in the window of the old house.
The abandoned ship drifted through the ghostly fog, its wooden hull creaking in the silence.
The moonlight cast a ghostly glow over the ruins, illuminating the crumbling arches with a pale, silver light that felt both beautiful and unsettling.
From Middle English gostly, gastlich, from Old English gāstlīċ (“spiritual, holy, clerical (not lay), ghastly, ghostly, spectral”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaistalīk (“spiritual”), equivalent to ghost + -ly. Cognate with Scots ghaistly, gaistly (“spiritual, ghastly, terrifying”), West Frisian geastlik (“spiritual, clerical, religious”), Dutch geestelijk (“spiritual, clerical, ecclesiastical”), German geistlich (“spiritual, sacred, religious”), Danish geistlig (“ecclesiastical, clerical”).
Typically used attributively before a noun to describe appearance or atmosphere.