ghost

/goʊst/

/gəʊst/

Other forms: ghosts; ghosted; ghosting

A ghost is the spirit of a person who's died. In most stories and myths, ghosts are pale, translucent, and wispy.

Throughout history, the idea that a person's soul or spirit can remain visible after her death has been common. Some of us long to see the ghost of a loved relative, while others are terrified of the very idea. From this main idea, the word ghost has also come to mean the hint or shade of something: "The ghost of a smile remained on her lips." The Old English root is gast, "spirit," and also "breath."

Definitions of ghost

1. noun

   the visible disembodied soul of a dead person
   types:

   poltergeist

   a ghost that announces its presence with rapping and the creation of disorder

   revenant

   someone who has returned from the dead

   type of:

   psyche, soul

   the immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life
2. noun

   a mental representation of some haunting experience
   “he looked like he had seen a ghost”

   synonyms: shade, specter, spectre, spook, wraith

   type of:

   apparition, fantasm, phantasm, phantasma, phantom, shadow

   something existing in perception only
3. noun

   a suggestion of some quality
   “he detected a ghost of a smile on her face”

   synonyms: touch, trace

   types:

   tang

   a suggestion of some quality

   type of:

   proffer, proposition, suggestion

   a proposal offered for acceptance or rejection
4. verb

   move like a ghost
   “The masked men ghosted across the moonlit yard”

   type of:

   go, locomote, move, travel

   change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically
5. verb

   haunt like a ghost; pursue
   synonyms: haunt, obsess

   type of:

   preoccupy

   engage or engross the interest or attention of beforehand or occupy urgently or obsessively
6. noun

   a writer who gives the credit of authorship to someone else
   synonyms: ghostwriter

   type of:

   author, writer

   a person who writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay)
7. verb

   write for someone else
   synonyms: ghostwrite

   type of:

   author

   be the author of