HOW TO PRONOUNCE
ghost
/ɡoʊst/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 1:05
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What does ghost mean?
noun
- A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death.
- Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image.
- A false image, for example in a photographic print or negative, or on a television screen or radar display, or in a telescope, caused by poor or double reception or reflection (from a lens or screen).
More meanings (36)
noun
- (slang) A faint image that remains after an attempt to remove graffiti.
- Ellipsis of ghostwriter.
- A nonexistent person invented to obtain some (typically fraudulent) benefit.
- A dead person whose identity is stolen by another (see ghosting).
- An unresponsive user on IRC, resulting from the user's client disconnecting without notifying the server.
- A copy of a file or record.
- An understudy.
- A covert (and deniable) agent.
- An opponent in a racing game that follows a previously recorded route, allowing players to compete against previous best times.
- Someone whose identity cannot be established because there are no records of such a person.
- An unphysical state in a gauge theory.
- 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.
- Ellipsis of ghost pepper.
- A game in which players take turns to add a letter to a possible word, trying not to complete a word.
- White or pale.
- Transparent or translucent.
- Abandoned.
- Remnant; remains.
- Perceived or listed but not real.
- Of a cryptid, supernatural or extraterrestrial nature.
- Substitute.
- (archaic, literary) A spirit; a human soul.
adjective
- (slang) In the form be ghost: not present or involved; absent, gone.
verb
- (literary) Of a disembodied soul: to appear (somewhere or to someone) in the form of an apparition; to haunt.
- (literary) To imbue (something) with a ghost-like effect or hue.
- (figuratively) To continuously cause (someone or something) trouble; specifically, to continuously be in the thoughts of (someone) in a disturbing manner; to perturb, to trouble.
- (figuratively, slang) To kill (someone).
- (figuratively) To gray out (a visual element) to indicate that it is unavailable.
- (figuratively) To forcibly disconnect (an IRC user) who is using one's reserved nickname.
- (figuratively, slang) To stop communicating with (someone) on social media, through text messages, etc., without explanation, especially as a way of ending a relationship; hence, to end a relationship with (someone) by stopping all communication without explanation.
- (figuratively) To transfer (a prisoner) to another prison, usually without first informing the prisoner.
- Synonym of ghostwrite (“to write (a literary work or speech), or produce (an artistic work)), in the place of someone”); also, to carry out (an artistic performance) in the place of someone.
- To appear suddenly or move like a disembodied soul; specifically (often sports); also (transitive, dated) followed by the dummy subject it: to move easily and quietly without anyone noticing; to slip.
- Followed by for: synonym of ghostwrite (“to write a literary work or speech, or produce an artistic work, in the place of someone”); also, to carry out an artistic performance in the place of someone.
- Of a sailing vessel: to sail seemingly with very little or no wind.
- (obsolete) Apparently only in the writings of the Dutch-English physician Gideon Harvey (c. 1636–1640 – c. 1700–1702): to die, to expire.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ɡoʊst/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
“Ghost, you gander! It ain’t anything but air and heat and thirstiness pasted together by a person’s imagination. If I—gimme the glass!”
So, underneath the belly of their steeds, That stained their fetlocks in his smoking blood, The noble gentleman gave up the ghost.
More book examples (3)
“Well, the silly body should have told en sooner that the ghost of her first man would trouble him,” said Mrs Crick.
"The performance has only begun and you know that the ghost does not usually come until the middle of the first act."
This happy innovation is not a derivative of reason or personal development, but solely the gift and operation of the Holy Ghost.