ghost

Meaning

Noun

1. The spirit; the human soul.
2. The disembodied soul; the soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death.
3. Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image.
4. A false image formed in a telescope, camera, or other optical device by reflection from the surfaces of one or more lenses.
5. An unwanted image similar to and overlapping or adjacent to the main one on a television screen, caused by the transmitted image being received both directly and via reflection.
6. A ghostwriter.
7. A nonexistent person invented to obtain some (typically fraudulent) benefit.
8. A dead person whose identity is stolen by another. See ghosting.
9. An unresponsive user on IRC, resulting from the user's client disconnecting without notifying the server.
10. An image of a file or hard disk.
11. An understudy.
12. A covert (and deniable) agent.
13. The faint image that remains after an attempt to remove graffiti.
14. An opponent in a racing game that follows a previously recorded route, allowing players to compete against previous best times.
15. Someone whose identity cannot be established because there are no records of him/her.
16. An unphysical state in a gauge theory.
17. A formerly nonexistent character that was at some point mistakenly encoded into a character set standard, which might have since become used opportunistically for some genuine purpose.
18. Clipping of ghost pepper.
19. A game in which players take turns to add a letter to a possible word, trying not to complete a word.
20. White or pale.
21. Transparent or translucent.
22. Abandoned.
23. Remnant; the remains of a(n).
24. Perceived or listed but not real.
25. Of cryptid, supernatural or extraterrestrial nature.
26. Substitute.

Verb

1. (obsolete) To haunt; to appear to in the form of an apparition.
2. (obsolete) To die; to expire.
3. To imbue with a ghost-like hue or effect.
4. To ghostwrite.
5. To sail seemingly without wind.
6. To copy a file or hard drive image.
7. To gray out (a visual item) to indicate that it is unavailable.
8. To forcibly disconnect an IRC user who is using one's reserved nickname.
9. To appear or move without warning, quickly and quietly; to slip.
10. To transfer (a prisoner) to another prison without the prior knowledge of other inmates.
11. (slang) To kill.
12. (slang) To perform an act of ghosting: to break up with someone without warning or explanation; to ignore someone, especially on social media.
13. To provide the speaking or singing voice for another actor, who is lip-syncing.

Concepts

ghost

spirit

phantom

apparition

spectre

demon

soul

specter

devil

evil spirit

monster

goblin

spook

wraith

genie

shade

shadow

phantasm

fiend

vampire

ghostwrite

haunt

touch

trace

bogey

departed soul

Satan

giant

ghostwriter

hobgoblin

sprite

dead person

bugbear

revenant

sudden apparition

jinn

evil

demons

imp

zombie

obsess

ancestral spirit

ogress

ghost line

bogy

ghost image

double image

monstrous

supernatural being

hue

tincture

manifestation

beast

corpse

dead body

supernatural

bat

ghoul

spirit of a dead person

dead

departed spirits

jinni

genii

jack-o’-lantern

will-o’-the-wisp

Daityas

incubus

specters

boggard

boggart

bogle

fetch

prowl

haunter

dead soul

death’s soul

Rowland ghost

grating ghost

bird

enemy

ghosts

scarecrow

bad spirit

esprit

humor

humour

wit

cell

data

element

principle

rudiment

gnome

pixy

bright band

secondary image

fold-over

phantom line

disembodied soul

elf

dreadful

frightful

horrible

horrid

horror

seance

sickle

human spirit

burning ground

female demon

doppelganger

zombi

air

color

coloration

colour

colouration

flavour

key

note

ring

spin

tinge

tone

undertone

undertow

hag

witch

white person

anima

being

psyche

spectre specter

fairy

beanpole

illusion

unaccountable

weird

angel

Grim Reaper

djinn

ghostie

haint

heard

bewitching

ugly

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ɡəʊst/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English gost, from Old English gāst (which was the word for “spirit” as well as “ghost”; the original sense survives in Modern English Holy Ghost), from Proto-West Germanic *gaist, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysdos, derived from *ǵʰéysd- (“anger, agitation”). The ⟨h⟩ in the spelling appears in the Prologue to William Caxton's Royal Book, printed in 1484, in a reference to the ‘Holy Ghoost’, likely introduced by Caxton's assistant, Wynkyn de Worde, as a result of Flemish influence, where it was spelled gheest at the time. Doublet of geist.

Sentences

He has done so much ghostwriting that he starts to feel like a ghost , too .