ghost
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɡəʊst/
ipa: /ɡoʊst/
text: -
text: -
ipa: /ɡɐʉst/
note: Indic, spelling pronunciation
ipa: /ɡʱosʈ/
rhymes: -əʊst
Forms: form: ghosts
form: ghoast
form: gost
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”)
Senses: examples: text: Everyone believed that the ghost of an old lady haunted the crypt.
text: He believes in ghosts.
text: The mighty ghosts of our great Harries rose.
ref: 1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):
text: I thought that I had died in sleep/And was a blessed ghost
ref: 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere:
text: For a moment I was puzzled, but presently, of course, it struck me that he must have seen Ayesha, wrapped in her grave-like garment, and been deceived by the extraordinary undulating smoothness of her walk into a belief that she was a white ghost gliding towards him.
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
text: Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.
ref: 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii:
synonyms: apparition
bogey
phantom
revenant
specter
spook
glosses: A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death.
examples: text: hen gins her grieued ghost thus to lament and mourne.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 31:
text: Enlightening the eyes and a taste for hope, emotions are felt from an inward ghost.
ref: 2013, Kenneth Palmer, Just Thoughts: Looking at Man's Whole Self, page 20:
text: If I thought that “I” referred to my inner ghost, I wouldn't be worried because a bullet can't hurt a ghost, and equally there would be no point in your shooting.
ref: 2014, Neville Moray, Science, Cells and Souls: An Introduction to Human Nature:
text: It also required four years of finding your inner ghost and becoming one with it. The inner ghost is within every person who is still alive.
ref: 2017, Anastasia Burton, You and I, in a Thousand Moons:
topics: Christianity
synonyms: essence
soul
spirit
anima
glosses: A spirit; a human soul.
examples: text: .
text: not a ghost of a chance
text: the ghost of an idea
text: And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
ref: 1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y.; London: Wiley & Putnam, […], →OCLC:
text: Armistead Maupin's novels reflect more awareness of, and affection for, the texture of real life than As If After Sex. Maupin's characters may get into cartoonlike adventures, but they are real people. Torchia's characters do drearily familiar things, but they are ghosts.
ref: 1984 December 29, Duncan Mitchel, “The Cult of Gay Machismo”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 25, page 14:
text: Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.
ref: 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, archived from the original on 17 Jul 2013, pages 206–7:
text: […] She barely answers his questions. She’s a ghost of herself. And then Hot Pie gives us the key to Arya’s whole thing this season so far: She didn’t know that Jon had defeated the Boltons.
ref: 2017 July 23, Brandon Nowalk, “The great game begins with a bang on Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club:
synonyms: glimmer
glimmering
glimpse
hint
inkling
phantom
spark
suggestion
glosses: Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image.
glosses: A false image formed in a telescope, camera, or other optical device by reflection from the surfaces of one or more lenses.
examples: text: There was less flicker, jitter was nonexistent, and the screen pattern had been rendered far more viewworthy, with ghosts being virtually suppressed.
ref: 2007, Albert Abramson, The History of Television, 1942 to 2000, page 60:
synonyms: echo
glosses: An unwanted image similar to and overlapping or adjacent to the main one on a television screen, caused by the transmitted image being received both directly and via reflection.
examples: text: I’ve written both as a ghost for experts and under my name.
topics: communications
journalism
literature
media
publishing
writing
glosses: Ellipsis of ghostwriter.
examples: text: Some health systems are plagued by "ghost" and "absent" workers. Ghost workers are nonexistent, listed in the payroll, and paid, a clear sign of corruption.
ref: 2004, Joint Learning Initiative, Global Equity Initiative, Human Resources for Health: Overcoming the Crisis, page 76:
text: 1,500 secondary schools in Jiangxi found 125 cases of illegally collected Ghosts and Absentees fees worth $2 million.
ref: 2008, The Asia-Pacific Human Development Report, page 63:
text: Before filling out this form, please visit the Pennsic Pre-Registration Page to create your account and enter your campers and ghosts [nonexistent campers one pays for to legitimately increase the size of one's allotted camping space].
ref: 2023, Barony of Ponte Alto, Society for Creative Anachronism, Ponte Alto Pennsic Encampment 2023 - Barony Registration
glosses: A nonexistent person invented to obtain some (typically fraudulent) benefit.
glosses: A dead person whose identity is stolen by another (see ghosting).
examples: text: This will let you open a query with NickServ again so you can remove your “ghost” from the server: […]
ref: 2004, Paul Mutton, IRC Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools, page 31:
glosses: An unresponsive user on IRC, resulting from the user's client disconnecting without notifying the server.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
synonyms: backup
glosses: A copy of a file or record.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
theater
glosses: An understudy.
topics: espionage
government
military
politics
war
synonyms: spook
spy
glosses: A covert (and deniable) agent.
examples: text: Regardless of GRM used, graffiti ghosts persist. Protect cladding with surface coating or replace with graffiti resistant paint or laminate.
ref: 1992, M. J. Whitford, Getting Rid of Graffiti, Routledge, →ISBN, page 45:
synonyms: shadow
qualifier: cleaning
glosses: A faint image that remains after an attempt to remove graffiti.
examples: text: This is also the case for some racing games (Super Mario Kart is a good example) that allow you to compete against your ghosts, which are precise recordings of your performance.
ref: 2012, Keith Burgun, Game Design Theory: A New Philosophy for Understanding Games:
topics: video-games
glosses: An opponent in a racing game that follows a previously recorded route, allowing players to compete against previous best times.
glosses: Someone whose identity cannot be established because there are no records of such a person.
examples: text: The proof is well known, and independent of the metric, but to make certain we prove it here also for the case when the state vector system of an operator contains multipole^([sic]) ghosts.
ref: 1966, Kàzmèr L. Nagy, State Vector Spaces with Indefinite Metric in Quantum Field Theory, page 14:
text: Soon after, the proof of the No-Ghost Theorem, establishing that the DRM has no ghosts if d ≤ 26, was achieved independently by Brower (1972) and by Goddard and Thorn (1972).
ref: 2019, Radin Dardashti, Richard Dawid, Karim Thébault, Why Trust a Theory?, page 180:
qualifier: quantum mechanics
glosses: An unphysical state in a gauge theory.
examples: text: 彁 is a ghost character from the Japanese JIS X 0208 character set.
topics: computing
engineering
human-sciences
linguistics
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A formerly nonexistent character that was at some point mistakenly encoded into a character set standard, which might have since become used opportunistically for some genuine purpose.
examples: text: Spicy or mild, lovely bells or scary ghosts, peppers belong in your garden. Not only are they delicious, they add a gorgeous pop of color to vegetable gardens. When starting pepper seeds, consider using a heat mat.
ref: 2018 October 2, Julie Thompson-Adolf, Starting & Saving Seeds: Grow the Perfect Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs, and Flowers for Your Garden, Cool Springs Press, →ISBN, page 68:
text: Fresh chili has a glossy smooth skin like a bell pepper...unless you're in scorching territory, with the likes of Ghosts or Reapers (their name should give the game away), where the skin looks [wrinkled].
ref: 2022 July 5, Alice Zaslavsky, In Praise of Veg: The Ultimate Cookbook for Vegetable Lovers, Appetite by Random House, →ISBN:
glosses: Ellipsis of ghost pepper.
glosses: A game in which players take turns to add a letter to a possible word, trying not to complete a word.
examples: text: ghost slug
text: ghost flower
glosses: White or pale.
raw_tags: in names of species
examples: text: ghost ant
text: ghost catfish
glosses: Transparent or translucent.
raw_tags: in names of species
examples: text: ghost town
text: ghost ship
glosses: Abandoned.
examples: text: ghost apples (a thin layer of ice in the shape of an apple, which forms around it and is left behind when the apple rots and falls out)
text: ghost fossils (impressions of things like shells that remain in the rock after the shell etc dissolves)
text: ghost cell
text: ghost craters (craters that have been filled, e.g. with volcanic deposits)
text: ghost image
glosses: Remnant; remains.
examples: text: ghost cellphone vibration
text: ghost pain
text: ghost island
text: ghost voter
glosses: Perceived or listed but not real.
examples: text: ghost rocket
text: ghost deer
glosses: Of cryptid, supernatural or extraterrestrial nature.
examples: text: ghost writer
text: ghost singer
glosses: Substitute.
Hypernyms: word: being
word: entity
word: spirit
Hyponyms: word: anima
word: wereghost
word: apparition
word: barghest
word: duppy
word: eidolon
word: empuse
word: ghost
word: ghost in the machine
word: gray ghost
word: grey ghost
word: haint
word: haunt
word: hungry ghost
word: jumbie
word: phantom
word: poltergeist
word: revenant
word: shade
word: specter
word: spectre
word: spook
word: sprite
word: visitant
word: wraith
Derived terms: word: antighost
word: beghost
word: black ghost knifefish
word: digital ghost
word: errand ghost
word: errand-ghost
word: Faddeev-Popov ghost
word: gauge ghost
word: ghast
word: ghost apple
word: ghost at the feast
word: ghostball
word: ghostban
word: ghost band
word: ghost bat
word: ghost bicycle
word: ghost bike
word: ghost brand
word: ghost bullet
word: ghost bump
word: ghostbuster
word: ghostbusting
word: ghost call
word: ghost car
word: ghost cat
word: ghost catshark
word: ghost character
word: ghost chili
word: ghost chili pepper
word: ghost chilli
word: ghost company
word: ghost condensate
word: ghost corridor
word: ghost crab
word: ghostcraft
word: Ghost Dance
word: ghost dance
word: ghost detainee
word: ghostdom
word: ghost driver
word: ghost employee
word: ghosten
word: ghoster
word: ghostess
word: ghost-faced bat
word: Ghost Festival
word: ghost field
word: ghostfish
word: ghost flathead
word: ghost fleet
word: ghost flight
word: ghost forest
word: ghost frog
word: ghost from one's past
word: ghost fungus
word: ghost gear
word: ghost goal
word: ghost gum
word: ghost gun
word: ghost home
word: ghosthood
word: ghost hotel
word: ghost house
word: ghosthunt
word: ghosthunter
word: ghosthunting
word: ghostie
word: ghostify
word: ghost image
word: ghost imaging
word: ghost insect
word: ghost in the graveyard
word: ghost in the machine
word: ghostish
word: ghost island
word: ghostism
word: ghost kanji
word: ghostkind
word: ghostking
word: ghost kitchen
word: ghost knifefish
word: ghost labor
word: ghostland
word: ghost language
word: ghostless
word: ghostlet
word: ghost light
word: ghostlike
word: ghostling
word: ghostlore
word: ghost-lore
word: ghost lore
word: ghostly
word: ghost mark
word: ghost marriage
word: ghost money
word: ghostmonger
word: ghost moose
word: ghost moth
word: ghost net
word: ghost nipper
word: ghost note
word: ghost nudibranch
word: ghostology
word: ghost orchid
word: ghost peak
word: ghost pepper
word: ghost piece
word: ghost-ping
word: ghost pipe
english: Solenostomus
translation: Solenostomus
word: ghost pipefish
word: ghost plane
word: ghost plant
word: ghost population
word: ghost post
word: ghost prisoner
word: ghost project
word: ghost ramp
word: ghost restaurant
word: ghost ride
word: ghost-ride
word: ghost-riding
word: ghost runner
word: ghost-scraper
word: ghost shark
word: ghost ship
word: ghost shirt
word: ghost shrimp
word: ghost sickness
word: ghost sign
word: ghost singer
word: ghost skate
word: ghost skin
word: ghost slug
word: ghostsome
word: ghost spam
word: ghost station
word: ghost story
word: ghost street
word: ghost swift
word: ghost town
word: ghost-townish
word: ghost track
word: ghost train
word: ghost tree
word: ghost turd
word: ghost vote
word: ghost voting
word: ghostweed
word: ghost wolf
word: ghostword
word: ghost word
word: ghost work
word: ghost world
word: ghostwort
word: ghost write
word: ghost-write
word: ghostwriter
word: ghostwritten
word: ghosty
word: give up the ghost
word: gray ghost
word: great Caesar's ghost
word: grey ghost
word: Holy Ghost
word: hungry ghost
word: Indian ghost
word: long ghost
word: mountain ghost
word: no-ghost theorem
word: pale as a ghost
word: Pepper's ghost
word: the ghost walks
word: unghost
word: wereghost
word: white as a ghost
word: yield the ghost
word: yield up the ghost
Related terms: word: apparition
word: banshee
word: barghest
word: bogeyman
word: boggart
word: bogie
word: channelling
word: chimera
word: demon
word: doppelganger
word: draugr
word: duppy
word: ectoplasm
word: eidolon
word: exorcism
word: fantom
word: fetch
word: ghoul
word: haint
word: hallucination
word: haunt
word: illusion
word: incubus
word: lamia
word: larva
word: lemur
word: manes
word: mare
word: medium
word: mirage
word: necromancy
word: nightmare
word: phantasm
word: phantom
word: poltergeist
word: revenant
word: shade
word: shadow
word: soul
word: specter
word: spectre
word: spirit
word: Spiritism
word: spook
word: sprite
word: things that go bump in the night
word: vampire
word: visitant
word: wendigo
word: wight
word: will-o'-the-wisp
word: wraith
word: zombie
word: bogey
word: bogieman
word: bogyman
word: boogieman
word: boogeyman
word: boogyman
word: buggerman
word: bug-a-boo
word: bugaboo
word: bugbear
word: creature
word: fairy
word: goblin
word: gremlin
word: Pepper's ghost
word: ignore
word: ghostly
word: monstrous