How to Use ghostly in a Sentence

ghostly

adjective
  • A ghostly figure appears in the house at night.
  • Some of her images have a ghostly depth.
    — Zach Helfand, New Yorker, 29 Nov. 2025
  • Do all the ghouls and goblins come to your house for ghostly treats?
    — Shirley MacFarland, cleveland, 8 Oct. 2021
  • The play itself perhaps wants to eat its ghostly cake and eat it too.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 7 Nov. 2022
  • And why would anyone want to share their home with ghostly roommates?
    — Michelle Mastro, Architectural Digest, 18 Oct. 2024
  • There are no leaves on the bottom, no dirt, no mold, no ghostly stains where rain has been.
    — Clare Sestanovich, Harper's Magazine, 23 June 2020
  • There were the ghostly outlines of the dancers’ bodies framed in a pool of blue.
    — Los Angeles Times, 21 Oct. 2022
  • Dress as dark as the night, but don’t be scared of inviting a ghostly contrast.
    — Monique Brown, refinery29.com, 22 Mar. 2023
  • Since then, many stories have gone around about the ghostly hauntings on the ship.
    — Robin Raven, Forbes, 30 Oct. 2021
  • Oh, and the ghostly version of Benji who shows up on her doorstep.
    — Mary Cadden, USA TODAY, 7 June 2022
  • To get that ghostly look, take white face paint and a foundation brush, and put it all over your face.
    — Blake Bakkila, Good Housekeeping, 18 June 2019
  • What is permanent is the ghostly presence of the many stars who have graced its stage.
    — Patti Nickell, charlotteobserver, 26 June 2017
  • The cries that echo through the house at night aren’t ghostly wails but Asha’s gut-wrenching sobs.
    — Gayle Sequeira, Vulture, 20 Jan. 2025
  • Were the green fields, the ghostly cows, the misty air in the falling light enough to make life worth living?
    — J.r. Patterson, Washington Post, 29 July 2022
  • Objects appear to get lost in the frame like ghostly figures.
    — Adrian Madlener, Curbed, 24 Nov. 2025
  • From afar, the clothes hang in a mass like a ghostly chandelier adorning the nave of the church.
    — Adelia Suliman, The Christian Science Monitor, 22 Dec. 2017
  • Through the darkness and swirling mist, ghostly figures emerge from the looming ship.
    — Meredith G. White, AZCentral.com, 25 Sep. 2025
  • Keep an eye out for the ghostly Lady in White, who is said to roam the grounds.
    — Patricia Doherty, Travel + Leisure, 22 May 2026
  • The seafloor carpeted in ghostly skeletons of dead coral reefs.
    — Andrew Freedman, CNN Money, 12 Nov. 2025
  • Of course, there's nothing bad or evil about any of these names—this list is all in good fun for the ghostly and witchy among us!
    — Taylor Grothe, Parents, 9 Oct. 2024
  • The lights grow hazy, and the friends seem to see the ghostly images of their younger selves dancing alongside them.
    — Anna Russell, New Yorker, 2 Mar. 2026
  • In some pieces, a ghostly cube will appear to hover in the middle distance.
    — Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Apr. 2021
  • These days, Diplo’s hair is bleached a ghostly shade of white and long enough to pull back into a bun.
    — Jonathan Ringen, Billboard, 22 June 2017
  • At first, the ghostly sightings are benign, but then the spirit asks to move into the doll.
    — Eliza Thompson, Cosmopolitan, 20 June 2017
  • The film was not cleared in China, presumably down to its ghostly themes.
    — Nancy Tartaglione, Deadline, 3 Sep. 2024
  • The hounds of the unearthly Wild Hunt may be the best known of these ghostly dogs.
    — Kim Campbell Thornton, sacbee, 27 Oct. 2017
  • In the gray dawn, rows of bicycles bobbed at their moorings, as though lifted by ghostly hands.
    — Literary Hub, 26 Feb. 2026
  • But the ghostly remnants still remain on a path through the forests and ravines of Woodbury.
    — Peter Marteka, courant.com, 29 Nov. 2019
  • The parting words of this ghostly image of her have been lodged in Ray’s mind way past its welcome.
    — Andy Andersen, Vulture, 11 Apr. 2025
  • With a ghostly robe and glowing lantern, this 7-foot-tall phantom will inspire fear in the bravest of souls.
    — Kevin Cortez, Popular Mechanics, 15 Sep. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ghostly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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