Definition of GHASTLY

ghastly

Adjective Satellite

  • shockingly repellent; inspiring horror
    • "ghastly wounds"
  • gruesomely indicative of death or the dead
    • "ghastly shrieks"

Adj

  • Like a ghost in appearance; death-like; pale; pallid; dismal.
  • Horrifyingly shocking.
  • Extremely bad.

Adv

  • In a ghastly manner.

Adjective

  • Terrifyingly dreadful or horrible; resembling a ghost.

Examples

  • His opponent’s GHASTLY blunder opened the board for a huge play.
  • The play was simply ghastly.

Origin / 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.

Scrabble Score: 14

ghastly: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
ghastly: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
ghastly: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 14

ghastly: valid Words With Friends Word