ghastly, grisly, gruesome, macabre, lurid mean horrifying and repellent in appearance or aspect. ghastly suggests the terrifying aspects of corpses and ghosts.
GHASTLY definition: 1. unpleasant and shocking: 2. extremely bad or ugly: 3. If someone looks ghastly, they look very.. Learn more.
- shockingly frightful or dreadful; horrible: a ghastly murder. 2. resembling a ghost, esp. in being very pale; cadaverous. 3. terrible; very bad: a ghastly error. 4. in a ghastly manner; horribly; terribly. 5..
Jan 18, 2026 · Adjective ghastly (comparative ghastlier, superlative ghastliest) Like a ghost in appearance; death-like; pale; pallid; dismal.
Ghastly means dreadful, horrible, terrible, or shockingly frightful. Ghastly is more common in everyday usage in the U.K. than in the U.S., but it is used in the same ways in both places.
If you describe someone or something as ghastly, you mean that you find them very unpleasant.
Something that's ghastly isn't just gross. It's shockingly, horrifyingly unpleasant — so gruesome and grisly that it makes you want to puke.
