Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, relating to, or resembling a ghost, a wraith, or an apparition; spectral.
- adj. Of or relating to the soul or spirit; spiritual.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having to do with the soul or spirit; spiritual; not of the flesh; not carnal or secular.
- Pertaining or relating to apparitions; of ghostlike character; spectral; supernatural: as, ghostly sounds; a ghostly visitant.
- Spiritually; mystically; mentally; with reference to the mind as contrasted with the sight.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of or pertaining to ghosts or spirituality.
- adj. Spooky; frightening.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual.
- adj. Of or pertaining to apparitions.
- adv. Spiritually; mystically.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. resembling or characteristic of a phantom
Etymologies
- From Middle English gostly, gastlich, from Old English gāstlīċ ("spiritual, holy, clerical (not lay), ghastly, ghostly, spectral"), equivalent to ghost + -ly. Cognate with Scots gostly, gastly, gaistlie ("spiritual, ghastly, terrifying"), West Frisian geastlik ("spiritual, clerical, religious"), Dutch geestelijk ("spiritual, clerical, ecclesiastical"), German geistlich ("spiritual, sacred, religious"), Danish geistlig ("ecclesiastical, clerical"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“A full moon was drenching the mountains in ghostly light as some 60”
“The Palaeologi reigned in ghostly supremacy over the shreds and tatters of Byzantium until the Turks seized Constantinople in 1453.”
“Places Where Shadows Grow" gets into those stories the Sci-Fi Channel likes to mention in ghostly documentaries around the Halloween holiday season.”
“That indeterminacy is itself masked in ghostly reflections of a former paradigm.”
“Blank rectangular patches edged with reddish dust — ghost pictures in ghostly frames — showed where, no doubt, there had been photographs of the Shah and his family or his monuments.”
“Night came on, and a full moon rose high over the trees into the sky, lighting the land till it lay bathed in ghostly day.”
“I suspect that the feeling we call ghostly is but the sense of abandonment in the lack of companion life; but be this as it may,”
“After months chided in ghostly Twilight spoof spearheaded by Jimmy Fallon, Robert Pattinson is reportedly set to come face-to-face with the comedian on NBC’s Late Night next month.”
“You can see people when they take a shower," he says, referring to the ghostly silhouette visible from the ground floor and the stairwell.”
The Wall Street Journal: The Luxury of Space and Silence in Stockholm
“I admit that there were some parts in the movie that freaked me out, namely the ghostly figures at the beginning of the movie that Rosa saw out of the corner of her eye.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ghostly’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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ghost
This is Ghost List 2 ( the kind that go 'boo!' ) :P
( open list )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/macabrephantom, spectral, specter, spectre, spooky, poltergeist, haunt, spirit, banshee, cryptic, shadow, phantasm and 311 more...
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Lillyjames's Words
uncategorized words that I enjoy
replete, unabashed, dauntless, ubiquitous, fanged, blush, flush, murmur, mercurial, dishevelled, decrepit, raven and 146 more...
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The Most Beautiful Words in the Engli...
mellifluous, obscure, star-crossed, undulating, solstice, messiah, audacious, solace, twilight, wanderlust, lovelorn, byzantine and 219 more...
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kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, G
grocer, gabanergic, gabardine, gabbro, gaffe, gneiss, grapple, grosgrain, grommet, gratify, gossamer, goofy and 194 more...
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Favorite Words of AWP13
We asked attendees who visited the Wordnik booth what their favorite words were, and these are what they told us. (AWP is an annual conference for writers and those in the writing world.)
cling, declivity, susurrus, caramel, cataract, please, fester, reverie, kerplunk!, defenestration, colonel, ocean and 174 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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fragile/lovely words
incandescent, scintillating, sublime, stellar, fragile, bones, illuminate, luscious, celestial, crepuscular, penumbra, wanderlust and 111 more...
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_mark's list
Words I like!
( personal list, favorite words, randomness )psy, nanobot, success, smack, vibration, microcosmic, springgraph, marksmanship, estranged, homoerotic, flex, fiasco and 1692 more...
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Palabrarium
The delicious wonderful words that I love terribly dearly and without which, the world would be a less inventive and worthwhile place. Also, ostensibly, the reason 1984 and esperanto secretly suck.
panoply, footpad, piccalilli, snickersnee, marl, hispid, greengage, slumgullion, golliwog, mumbletypeg, circumlocution, quiescent and 366 more...
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gabrielle's Words
orchid, kaleidoscope, nefarious, plethora, serendipity, schadenfreude, verisimilitude, labyrinth, bewitched, myriad, archaic, audacity and 83 more...
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fitzgeraldean
snobbishly, riotous, impressionability, gestures, hope, gorgeous, dreams, elations, lawns, egg, mansion, supercilious and 60 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ghostly.

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