ghost town

noun

: a once-flourishing town wholly or nearly deserted usually as a result of the exhaustion of some natural resource

Examples of ghost town in a Sentence

After all the gold was mined, the place became a ghost town.

Recent Examples on the Web

The only things keeping Kaskaskia from transforming into a complete ghost town are the richness of the land, too alluring not to farm, and the church. — Andrew Carter, Chicago Tribune, 5 July 2026

Today, Primm is nearly a ghost town, where the soundtrack is primarily cawing crows and trucks speeding by on the highway. — Christopher Intagliata, NPR, 3 July 2026

Russia has used them to turn other cities into ghost towns, most famously Kherson, where the Dnieper River reaches the Black Sea. — Bloomberg News, Boston Herald, 27 June 2026

The Caribou Ranch Connection Chicago manager/producer James William Guercio built the remote recording studio Caribou Ranch near the Colorado ghost town of Caribou in 1972. — Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 20 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1894, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for ghost town

• adown
• blowdown
• breakdown
• countdown
• crackdown
• crosstown
• downtown
• drawdown
• dropdown
• facedown
• godown
• hometown

Kids Definition

ghost town

noun

: a town deserted because some natural resource has been used up