ghost

CEFRA1

/ɡəʊst/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    The spirit of a dead person, believed to appear to the living.

  2. 02

    verb

    To suddenly stop communicating with someone.

Examples

  • Strange to say, he saw the ghost of his father.

  • Sure enough, the ghost appeared on the balcony.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /ɡʱoːsʈ/
  • /ɡoʊst/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A spirit; a human soul.

  2. Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image.

  3. A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death.

More examples

In context

  • Everyone believed that the ghost of an old lady haunted the crypt.

  • not a ghost of a chance

  • He believes in ghosts.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

They thought they saw a blank in the old, empty house.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

The noun is derived from Middle English gost, from Old English gāst, gǣst (“breath, spirit, soul, ghost”) (compare modern English Holy Ghost), from Proto-West Germanic *gaist, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysdos, from *ǵʰéysd- (“anger, agitation”). The h in the spelling appears in the Prologue to William Caxton’s Royal Book, printed in 1484, in a reference to the “Holy Ghoost”. It was likely influenced by Middle Dutch gheest, a common variant of geest. Both Caxton and his assistant Wynkyn de Worde had connections to the Low Countries. Doublet of geist. The adjective and verb are derived from the noun. The verb gained prominence in the 2010s. cognates * Danish ga...