ghost

¹ghost

noun \ˈgōst\

Definition of GHOST

1

: the seat of life or intelligence : soul <give up the ghost>

2

: a disembodied soul; especially : the soul of a dead person believed to be an inhabitant of the unseen world or to appear to the living in bodily likeness

3

: spirit, demon

4

a : a faint shadowy trace <a ghost of a smile> b : the least bit <not a ghost of a chance>

5

: a false image in a photographic negative or on a television screen caused especially by reflection

6

: one who ghostwrites

7

: a red blood cell that has lost its hemoglobin

— ghost·like \-ˌlīk\ adjective

— ghosty \ˈgō-stē\ adjective

Examples of GHOST

1. a house haunted by ghosts
2. <looked for ghosts in the graveyard on Halloween>

Origin of GHOST

Middle English gost, gast, from Old English gāst; akin to Old High German geist spirit, Sanskrit heḍa anger

First Known Use: before 12th century

Related to GHOST

Synonyms: apparition, bogey (also bogie or bogy), familiar spirit, hant [dialect], haunt [chiefly dialect], materialization, phantasm (also fantasm), phantom, poltergeist, shade, shadow, specter (or spectre), spirit, spook, sprite, vision, visitant, wraith

Related Words: angel, daimon, familiar, genie, genius, jinni (or jinn also djinni or djinn), shaitan; double, doppelgänger (or doppelganger), fetch; lemures, manes; incubus, lamia, succubus, vampire, zombie (also zombi); cacodemon, demon (or daemon), devil, fiend, ghoul, imp

Near Antonyms: angel

see all synonyms and antonyms

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Other Occult Terms

augury, censor, invocation, lucidity, metempsychosis, mojo, numinous, preternatural, weird, wraith

Rhymes with GHOST

boast, coast, host, most, oast, post, roast, toast