as in spectral
of or relating to a ghost
A ghostly figure appears in the house at night.
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Recent Examples of ghostly
When ghostly figures appear, domestic absurdity spirals in this offbeat, comic, and charming portrait of family life.
—
Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 1 Apr. 2026
Adapted from Algernon Blackwood’s supernatural novella, The Man Whom the Trees Loved is a ghostly tale of the inexplicable horrors of nature.
—Matthew Carey, Deadline, 31 Mar. 2026
Maybe the ghostly energy of the artist does lives on in the art, the way an author’s imagination remains in the ink on the page.
—Literary Hub, 19 Mar. 2026
Modern science tends to see consciousness as arising from neural activity, like ghostly software conjured through the brain’s material hardware.
—Conor Feehly, Big Think, 10 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for ghostly
Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 1 Apr. 2026
Adapted from Algernon Blackwood’s supernatural novella, The Man Whom the Trees Loved is a ghostly tale of the inexplicable horrors of nature.
—Matthew Carey, Deadline, 31 Mar. 2026
Maybe the ghostly energy of the artist does lives on in the art, the way an author’s imagination remains in the ink on the page.
—Literary Hub, 19 Mar. 2026
Modern science tends to see consciousness as arising from neural activity, like ghostly software conjured through the brain’s material hardware.
—Conor Feehly, Big Think, 10 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for ghostly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ghostly
Adjective
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Across this soppy set of songs, the sum of these frictions is cyborgish and spectral, music from a MacBook whose dying wish was to see the world.—
Samuel Hyland,
Pitchfork,
15 Apr. 2026
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In the photographs taken that day, Bruce has a spectral beauty, as if conjured out of the air.—
Andrew Durbin,
Vulture,
13 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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These phantom costs drive up annual premiums.—
Jordan Bruneau,
Boston Herald,
25 Apr. 2026
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Developers routinely file speculative interconnection requests for projects that never get built, flooding queues with phantom demand.—
Tejasri Gururaj,
Interesting Engineering,
24 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Ghostly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ghostly. Accessed 30 Apr. 2026.
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