aghast

adjective

ə-ˈgast 

: struck with terror, amazement, or horror : shocked and upset

was aghast when she heard the news

Did you know?

If you are aghast, you might look like you've just seen a ghost, or something similarly shocking. Aghast traces back to a Middle English verb, gasten, meaning "to frighten." Gasten (which also gave us ghastly, meaning "terrible or frightening") comes from gast, a Middle English spelling of the word ghost. Gast also came to be used in English as a verb meaning "to scare." That verb is now obsolete, but its spirit lives on in words spoken by the character Edmund in William Shakespeare's King Lear: "gasted by the noise I made, full suddenly he fled."

Synonyms

• affrighted
• afraid
• alarmed
• fearful
• frightened
• horrified
• horror-struck
• hysterical
• hysteric
• scared
• scary
• shocked
• spooked
• terrified
• terrorized

Examples of aghast in a Sentence

The news left her aghast.

Critics were aghast to see how awful the play was.

Recent Examples on the Web

Advertisement But inmate advocates and correctional health experts were aghast at the finding. —Kelly Davis, Los Angeles Times, 20 Sep. 2024

Patrick Fitzgerald, who had last seen his 57-year-old brother the previous Thanksgiving, was aghast. —Mike Hixenbaugh, NBC News, 16 Sep. 2024

But advocates and correctional health experts were aghast at the finding. —Jeff McDonald, The Mercury News, 20 Sep. 2024

The series intercuts this footage with shots of Quinn in the present day, aghast, clutching his head in disbelief and anger. —Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 9 Feb. 2024

Word History

Etymology

alteration (with h after ghastly, ghost entry 1) of Middle English agast, from past participle of agasten "to frighten, become frightened," from a-, perfective prefix + -gasten "to frighten," — more at abide, gast

Note: Oxford English Dictionry, third edition, sees agasten as formed with Middle English gasten, though this verb is not attested until more than a century later, suggesting that gasten may have been formed by dropping the prefix from agasten. Old English gǣstan is attested only once, in Cynewulf's Juliana, and the sense appears to be closer to "afflict" than "frighten." The prefix a- in the modern adjective aghast has presumably been construed as a- entry 1.

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined above

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Kids Definition

aghast

adjective

ə-ˈgast 

: struck with terror, amazement, or horror