Ghostwriter

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A professional writer who is paid to write material that is officially credited to another person; one who writes on behalf of someone else, often for a celebrity.

    "Smith was listed as the author of his autobiography, but a ghostwriter did most of the work."

  2. 2
    a writer who gives the credit of authorship to someone else wordnet

Example

More examples

"Although the book cover officially credited Tom as the memoir's author, his paid ghostwriter came to regret portraying the subject of his book in a flattering light."

Etymology

From ghost + writer.

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