Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell ghostly

hear itghost·ly/ɡoʊstli/adjectiveSilent and tricky

What it means: Like a spirit of the dead; spooky or pale.

In a sentence: The old house made ghostly sounds at night.

The part people get wrong

Watch for a silent h. Often misspelled as ghosly or ghostley.

Same family: ghost, ghosts, ghostlike, ghostliness, haunted. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Ghostly comes from the noun "ghost," which goes back to Old English "gāst," meaning spirit or soul. The suffix "-ly" turns it into an adjective, so ghostly literally means "like a ghost."

Patterns it uses: Silent letters · Change y to i?

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