ghost

UK: /ˈgəʊst/ US: /goʊst/ ,(gōst)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

ghost /goʊst/   n. [countable]

1. the disembodied soul of a dead person, imagined as nearly transparent and wandering among the living to haunt them.
2. a weak or weakened version:
   She's a ghost of her former self.
3. the slightest bit:
   hadn't a ghost of a chance.
4. Informal Terms ghostwriter.
5. Radio and Television, Photography a secondary, usually faint or blurry image, as on a television screen or on a photographic negative or print.

v. 

6. to ghostwrite (a book, speech, etc.): [no object]
   She ghosts for a living.
   [~ + object]
   She ghosted several books.

Idioms

7. Idioms give up the ghost:
   • to die.
   • to cease to function:
     The old car gave up the ghost on our last trip.

ghost•ly, adj., -li•er, -li•est. 

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

ghost  (gōst), n. 

1. the soul of a dead person, a disembodied spirit imagined, usually as a vague, shadowy or evanescent form, as wandering among or haunting living persons.
2. a mere shadow or semblance;
   a trace:
   He's a ghost of his former self.
3. a remote possibility:
   He hasn't a ghost of a chance.
4. (sometimes cap.) a spiritual being.
5. the principle of life;
   soul;
   spirit.
6. Informal Terms See ghost writer. 
7. Radio and Television a secondary image, esp. one appearing on a television screen as a white shadow, caused by poor or double reception or by a defect in the receiver.
8. Photography Also called ghost image. a faint secondary or out-of-focus image in a photographic print or negative resulting from reflections within the camera lens.
9. an oral word game in which each player in rotation adds a letter to those supplied by preceding players, the object being to avoid ending a word.
10. Optics a series of false spectral lines produced by a diffraction grating with unevenly spaced lines.
11. Metallurgy a streak appearing on a freshly machined piece of steel containing impurities.
12. Biochemistry a red blood cell having no hemoglobin.
13. a fictitious employee, business, etc., fabricated esp. for the purpose of manipulating funds or avoiding taxes:
    Investigation showed a payroll full of ghosts.
14. Idioms give up the ghost:
    • to die.
    • to cease to function or exist.

v.t. 

15. to ghostwrite (a book, speech, etc.).
16. to haunt.
17. Printing [Engraving.] to lighten the background of (a photograph) before engraving.

v.i. 

18. to ghostwrite.
19. to go about or move like a ghost.
20. Naval Terms (of a sailing vessel) to move when there is no perceptible wind.
21. to pay people for work not performed, esp. as a way of manipulating funds.

adj. 

22. fabricated for purposes of deception or fraud:
    We were making contributions to a ghost company.

• bef. 900; Middle English goost (noun, nominal), Old English gāst; cognate with German Geist spirit

ghost′i•ly, adv. 
ghost′like′, adj. 
Synonyms

• 1. apparition, phantom, phantasm, wraith, revenant; shade, spook.
  Ghost, specter, spirit all refer to the disembodied soul of a person. A ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person, which appears or otherwise makes its presence known to the living:
  the ghost of a drowned child.
  A specter is a ghost or apparition of more or less weird, unearthly, or terrifying aspect:
  a frightening specter.
  Spirit is often interchangeable with ghost but may mean a supernatural being, usually with an indication of good or malign intent toward human beings:
  the spirit of a friend; an evil spirit.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

ghost / ɡəʊst/ noun

1. the disembodied spirit of a dead person, supposed to haunt the living as a pale or shadowy vision; phantom
2. a haunting memory: the ghost of his former life rose up before him
3. a faint trace or possibility of something; glimmer: a ghost of a smile
4. the spirit; soul (archaic, except in the phrase the Holy Ghost)
5. a faint secondary image produced by an optical system
6. a similar image on a television screen, formed by reflection of the transmitting waves or by a defect in the receiver
7. See ghost word
8. (modifier) falsely recorded as doing a particular job or fulfilling a particular function in order that some benefit, esp money, may be obtained: a ghost worker
9. give up the ghost ⇒ to die

verb

1. another word for ghostwrite
2. (transitive) to haunt
3. (intransitive) to move effortlessly and smoothly, esp unnoticed: he ghosted into the penalty area

Etymology: Old English gāst; related to Old Frisian jēst, Old High German geist spirit, Sanskrit hēda fury, anger

ˈghostˌlike adjective