# ghastly

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ˈɡɑːs(t).li/ · frequency rank #26,441

## Definitions
1. Like a ghost in appearance; death-like; pale; pallid; dismal.
2. Horrifyingly shocking.
3. Extremely bad.

## 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.

## Easily confused with
- **ghostly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/ghastly-vs-ghostly)

## Common misspellings (12)
`gahstly`, `gghastly`, `ghaslty`, `ghasstly`, `ghastlly`, `ghastlyy`, `ghasttly`, `ghastyl`, `ghatsly`, `ghhastly`, `ghsatly`, `hgastly`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/ghastly