What does "ghostwrite" mean?

To write under the name of another (especially literary works).

What is a synonym for "ghostwrite"?

Common synonyms include: ghost, act for, author, change places with, coauthor, collaborate.

verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Verb

1
To write under the name of another (especially literary works). intransitive
"Mariana would rather not ghostwrite for a living because she finds it a thankless task."
2
write for someone else wordnet
3
To author a literary work or speech in the place of another. transitive
"The president has someone to ghostwrite his addresses."

"Mariana would rather not ghostwrite for a living because she finds it a thankless task."

Back-formation from ghostwriter.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.