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 of aghast

• terrified
• frightened
• afraid
• horrified
• scared
• shocked
• alarmed

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

The samples did not sway the Design Review Board, however, whose members seemed aghast at the prospect of building chain-link fences that would protrude into Lake Michigan. —Shun Graves, Chicago Tribune, 24 Apr. 2026

Ann is aghast and summons her sons. —Alice Burton, Vulture, 20 Apr. 2026

Wouldn’t this character be aghast at the amount of random citizens taken out in these endless firefights? —Katie Walsh, Twin Cities, 18 Apr. 2026

Wouldn’t this character be aghast at the amount of random citizens taken out in these endless firefights? —Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2026

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," perhaps going back to Old English gǣstan "to afflict, torment," perhaps originally "to frighten, fill with terror," going back to Germanic *gaistjan-, derivative of *gaista- "spirit, ghost" — more at abide, ghost entry 1

Note: The prefix a- in the modern adjective aghast has presumably been construed as a- entry 1. 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." Phonological issues arise with tracing gasten back to gǣstan. The presumed short a in gasten implies early shortening of Old English ǣ, as the general outcome of this sound in Middle English was e (/ɛ:/). Walter Skeat thought that the history of (early) Modern English gast and aghast paralleled the development of Old English lǣstan and Modern English last "to continue in time," with Middle English showing the variants lasten and lesten.

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for aghast

• amassed
• biassed
• broadcast
• bypassed
• downcast
• forecast
• foremast
• harassed
• holdfast
• mainmast
• newscast
• outcast

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Kids Definition

aghast

adjective

ə-ˈgast 

: struck with terror, amazement, or horror