ghastly
/ˈɡæs(t).li/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.07 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Like a ghost in appearance; death-like; pale; pallid; dismal.
adj
adv
In a ghastly manner.
Example Sentences
- "Each turned his face with a ghastly pang."
- "His face was so ghastly that it could scarcely be recognized."
- ""My men grow mutinous day by day; / My men grow ghastly wan and weak." / The stout mate thought of home; a spray / Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek."
- "They gathered soberly in the farthest recess of the ward and gossiped about him in malicious, offended undertones, rebelling against his presence as a ghastly imposition and resenting him malevolently for the nauseating truth of which he was bright reminder."
- "Mangled with ghastly wounds through plate and mail."
- "They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too."
Etymology
From a conflation of gastly, from Middle English gastly, from gasten (from Old English gǣstan (“to torment, frighten”)) + -ly, and ghostly (which was also spelt gastlich in Middle English). Equivalent to ghast/gast + -ly. Spelling with gh developed in the 16th century due to the conflation.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɡæs(t).li/
- British English: /ˈɡɑːs(t).li/
Usage
Inflected Forms
ghastlier (comparative)
ghastliest (superlative)
more ghastly (comparative)
most ghastly (superlative)