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ghostly

Pronunciation: /ˈɡoʊstli/

The English word “ghostly” has 3 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Of or pertaining to ghosts or spirits.
  2. Spooky; frightening.
  3. Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual.

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”),…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.