Ghostly
adj ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Of or pertaining to ghosts or spirits.
"a ghostly figure with a hood"
- 2 Spooky; frightening.
"A ghostly hush fell."
- 3 Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual. archaic
"a ghostly confessor"
- 1 resembling or characteristic of a phantom wordnet
Example
More examples"On calm, clear days, stars and auroras cast green and white light downwards with such intensity that I can occasionally see my shadow and the forms and curves of the ice cap — everything bathed in ghostly colors, the auras of a cold, harsh and indifferent world."
Etymology
From Middle English gostly, gastlich, from Old English gāstlīċ (“spiritual, holy, clerical (not lay), ghastly, ghostly, spectral”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaistalīk (“spiritual”), equivalent to ghost + -ly. Cognate with Scots ghaistly, gaistly (“spiritual, ghastly, terrifying”), West Frisian geastlik (“spiritual, clerical, religious”), Dutch geestelijk (“spiritual, clerical, ecclesiastical”), German geistlich (“spiritual, sacred, religious”), Danish geistlig (“ecclesiastical, clerical”).