ghastly

adjective

ghast·ly ˈgast-lē

ghastlier; ghastliest

Synonyms of ghastly next

: terrifyingly horrible to the senses : frightening

a ghastly crime

: intensely unpleasant, disagreeable, or objectionable

such a life seems ghastly in its emptiness and sterility—

Aldous Huxley

: resembling a ghost

obsolete : filled with fear

: 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 One of our all-time favorite sources, the survey provides our best measure of America’s ghastly wealth disparities. —

Andrew Van Dam, Washington Post, 10 Nov. 2023 No disrespect intended for my brilliant colleagues in the business, but usually what happens is the publisher puts forward a ghastly and inappropriate cover design. —

David Marchese David Marchese Photograph By Mamadi Doumbouya, New York Times, 10 Nov. 2023 Ives transposes the action to an America of rampant affluence and ghastly superficiality, populated by boorish Wall Street titans (Cannavale) and shady plastic surgeons (Shamos) and drug-dealing diplomats (Pasquale) and tightly wound Hollywood agents (Gray). —

Peter Marks, Washington Post, 23 Oct. 2023 That in turn leads them to the shack inhabited by Maria Elena (Isabel Quinteros) and her two sons, one of whom is in a ghastly state. —

Dennis Harvey, Variety, 5 Oct. 2023 Unfortunately, instead of the sinister narratives that fans have come to expect from Carpenter, this series is a cheap display of ghastly crimes. —

Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 13 Oct. 2023 As a photo of its injury circulated, residents speculated about the ghastly incident that had stripped half its snout and fretted over the gator’s health. —

Daniel Wu, Washington Post, 18 Sep. 2023 Her husband, Paul, continues healing from the ghastly hammer attack by a QAnon crazy who broke into their San Francisco home last fall, looking to take the ex-speaker hostage. —

Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 27 Aug. 2023 Earlier this month, the Washington Post published a ghastly report about a brain collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington that was amassed by an early 20th century eugenicist to support his racist theories. —

Carolina A. Miranda, Los Angeles Times, 29 Aug. 2023 See More

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.