1
as in gruesome
extremely disturbing or repellent
a ghastly murder that shocked even hard-bitten detectives
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in intense
extreme in degree, power, or effect
I'm afraid that there's been a ghastly misunderstanding
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in terrifying
causing fear
a ghastly crime that made local residents afraid to go out at night
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of ghastly
What started as a routine check at Tampa International Airport in Florida took a ghastly turn last week when customs agents found what appeared to be human remains in someone's luggage.
—
Doha Madani, NBC news, 21 Sep. 2025
Reducing Zarutska’s cruel and untimely death to racist memes also erases the role that mental health — something that Republicans are happy to bring up whenever a white mass shooter guns down Americans in cold blood — likely played in the ghastly crime.
—Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 8 Sep. 2025
Behind one of these homes a ghastly discovery has recently been made and is now being unearthed.
—Greg Dixon, NPR, 25 Aug. 2025
The horror short follows a young woman who makes a ghastly deal with a witch in exchange for her problematic boyfriend.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 15 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for ghastly
Doha Madani, NBC news, 21 Sep. 2025
Reducing Zarutska’s cruel and untimely death to racist memes also erases the role that mental health — something that Republicans are happy to bring up whenever a white mass shooter guns down Americans in cold blood — likely played in the ghastly crime.
—Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 8 Sep. 2025
Behind one of these homes a ghastly discovery has recently been made and is now being unearthed.
—Greg Dixon, NPR, 25 Aug. 2025
The horror short follows a young woman who makes a ghastly deal with a witch in exchange for her problematic boyfriend.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 15 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for ghastly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ghastly
Adjective
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Since then, there’s been little doubt about who police believe is responsible for the 12-year-old schoolgirl’s gruesome death.—
Sean Neumann,
PEOPLE,
17 Oct. 2025
-
Cultures around the world have ancient traditions of narrating events, sometimes gruesome, through song.—
John Metcalfe,
Mercury News,
16 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Thus, current fears reinforce a pre-existing localism, and infuse it with new and intense emotions.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
18 Oct. 2025
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After at least half a decade of acute concern about the way that platforms such as Instagram may affect young people, as well as intense debate about how best to keep kids safe online, Meta has arrived at a label that was invented in the 1980s because parents were upset by movies such as Gremlins.—
Kaitlyn Tiffany,
The Atlantic,
17 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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In the del Toro version, the creature played by Jacob Elordi is not terrifying, the director told Entertainment Weekly in September before the film debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival.—
Raechal Shewfelt,
Entertainment Weekly,
21 Oct. 2025
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The line occurs when the film’s protagonist, Ripley (Weaver), emerges from an elevator in a giant metal bodysuit, ready to fight a terrifying alien to save a young child.—
Toria Sheffield,
PEOPLE,
19 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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The tragedy in question is no secret — Chris and Jenny are killed together in a horrific car accident, which inspires all sorts of awful questions — and the fallout is mostly predictable.—
Kate Erbland,
IndieWire,
22 Oct. 2025
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How the stakeholders juggled those diametrically opposed ideas—liberty and self-governance but also slavery and their horrific treatment of the Native American population—is the part of the human experience that Burns is most interested in exploring.—
Carlo Versano,
MSNBC Newsweek,
22 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Higgins pointed out that land-intensive projects, like the Miami Freedom Park soccer stadium project, could have included housing on the premises.—
Max Klaver,
Miami Herald,
18 Oct. 2025
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Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire following intensive peace negotiations in Doha, Qatar, according to Reuters reporting on an announcement made by Qatar's foreign ministry early Sunday.—
Adeola Adeosun,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Inherently, a writer doing historical research is always victim to this horrible irony.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
21 Oct. 2025
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There are some horrible things said on stage by the mystery writer that Tony Carlin plays.—
Angela Andaloro,
PEOPLE,
21 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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The shocking New York City murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024 was followed by a July Midtown Manhattan shooting that claimed the lives of two security guards and two executives at Blackstone and Rudin Management.—
Amanda Gerut,
Fortune,
21 Oct. 2025
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At some hibernation sites, a shocking 90 to 100 percent of bats have died, and there currently is no cure.—
Arricca Elin SanSone,
Southern Living,
21 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Chapter narrators alternate between a homing pigeon and a soldier whose futures intersect in the most terrible of war offensives in France.—
The Know,
Denver Post,
19 Oct. 2025
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Sunday will also be Gabriel’s first NFL start in terrible weather.—
Miami Herald,
Miami Herald,
19 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ghastly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ghastly. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.
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