ghastly

adjective

ghast·​ly ˈgast-lē How to pronounce ghastly (audio)
ghastlier; ghastliest
1
a
: terrifyingly horrible to the senses : frightening
a ghastly crime
b
: intensely unpleasant, disagreeable, or objectionable
such a life seems ghastly in its emptiness and sterilityAldous Huxley
2
: resembling a ghost
3
obsolete : filled with fear
4
: very great
a ghastly mistake
ghastliness noun
ghastly adverb
Choose the Right Synonym for ghastly

ghastly, grisly, gruesome, macabre, lurid mean horrifying and repellent in appearance or aspect.

ghastly suggests the terrifying aspects of corpses and ghosts.

a ghastly accident

grisly and gruesome suggest additionally the results of extreme violence or cruelty.

an unusually grisly murder
suffered a gruesome death

macabre implies a morbid preoccupation with the physical aspects of death.

a macabre tale of premature burial

lurid adds to gruesome the suggestion of shuddering fascination with violent death and especially with murder.

the lurid details of a crime

Examples of ghastly in a Sentence

You're making a ghastly mistake. His room was a ghastly mess.
Recent Examples on the Web What Juan claims—and this is a ghastly thing to have to write—is that some of the students were killed, sometime in the early hours of September 27th, and cut into pieces. Alma Guillermoprieto, The New Yorker, 4 Mar. 2024 Around 9 o’clock, two young brothers playing by the river made the ghastly discovery. Anna Turning, NBC News, 17 Feb. 2024 Associated Press General Motors' troubled robotaxi service Cruise on Feb. 6 endured a public lashing from a California judge who compared the company to the devious TV character Eddie Haskell for its behavior following a ghastly collision that wrecked its ambitious expansion plans. Michael Liedtke, Detroit Free Press, 11 Feb. 2024 Stories like Laura’s are ghastly, but the legal intricacies are not exaggerated. Katherine Hobbs, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Jan. 2024 That was a ghastly month: Just two teams received invitations to the NCAA Tournament. Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 12 Feb. 2024 The ghastly reality of 100,000 dead, injured or missing weighs like an anvil on the hearts of the majority of Americans. Doris Bittar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Feb. 2024 Such a human chain would focus news coverage on the map of the area, and on any repression unleashed on the demonstrators, rather than on ghastly murders many tend to blame on the Palestinian people as a whole rather than the Hamas regime that has ruthlessly crushed all dissent since its 2007 coup. David Super, Baltimore Sun, 29 Jan. 2024 General Motors’ troubled robotaxi service Cruise on Tuesday endured a public lashing from a California judge who compared the company to the devious TV character Eddie Haskell for its behavior following a ghastly collision that wrecked its ambitious expansion plans. Michael Liedtke, Fortune, 7 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ghastly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English gastly, from gasten to terrify — more at gast

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of ghastly was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near ghastly

Cite this Entry

“Ghastly.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ghastly. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

ghastly

adjective
ghast·​ly ˈgast-lē How to pronounce ghastly (audio)
ghastlier; ghastliest
1
a
: horrible sense 1, shocking
a ghastly crime
b
: very unpleasant, disagreeable, or objectionable
2
: resembling a ghost
a ghastly face
ghastliness noun
ghastly adverb

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