Holy Ghost

name

"holy-ghost" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Holy Ghost” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The person (hypostasis) of the Trinity or Godhead corresponding to divine essence, which becomes present in and among the faithful (particularly inspired prophets) and is considered to proceed eith...

Corpus desk

Index EN-holy-ghost · Holy Ghost · English

Holy Ghost · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "H" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for Holy Ghost
PropertyValue
HeadwordHoly Ghost
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechProper noun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Holy Ghost” in English

Holy Ghostranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Holy Ghost is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The person (hypostasis) of the Trinity or Godhead corresponding to divine essence, which becomes present in and among the faithful (particularly inspired prophets) and is considered to proceed eith...".

No misspelling variants are generated for Holy Ghost in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English Holi Gost, from Old English Hāliġ Gāst, a calque of Latin Spīritus Sānctus, which in turn is a calque of Ancient Greek Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον (Pneûma tò Hágion), from πνεῦμα (pneûma, “breath, vital force, soul”) + ἅγιος (hágios, “holy”)), a cal… The correct English form is Holy Ghost, spelled H-O-L-Y- -G-H-O-S-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    The person (hypostasis) of the Trinity or Godhead corresponding to divine essence, which becomes present in and among the faithful (particularly inspired prophets) and is considered to proceed either (Eastern Orthodoxy) from God the Father alone or (Roman Catholicism) from Him together with God the Son.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how Holy Ghost appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Now the birth of Iesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Ioseph (before they came together) shee was found with childe of the holy Ghost.
  2. O God the Holy Ghost, Perfecter of the Elect, Have Mercy on us.

Etymology

From Middle English Holi Gost, from Old English Hāliġ Gāst, a calque of Latin Spīritus Sānctus, which in turn is a calque of Ancient Greek Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον (Pneûma tò Hágion), from πνεῦμα (pneûma, “breath, vital force, soul”) + ἅγιος (hágios, “holy”)), a calque of Hebrew רוּחַ הָקֹדֶשׁ (rûaḥ hā-qōḏeš), from רוּחַ (rûaḥ, “wind, breath, spirit”) + קֹדֶשׁ (qōḏeš, “holiness”), from earlier רוּחַ יְהֹוָה/יַהְוֶה (rûaḥ Yəhōwā/Yahəweh, “wind of Jehovah/Yahweh”).

Synonyms

God the Holy Ghostothers at Holy Spirit

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Holy Ghost"?
"Holy Ghost" is spelled H-O-L-Y- -G-H-O-S-T.
What does "Holy Ghost" mean?
As a proper noun, "Holy Ghost" means: The person (hypostasis) of the Trinity or Godhead corresponding to divine essence, which becomes present in and among the faithful (particularly inspired prophets) and is considered to proceed eith...
What is the origin of the word "Holy Ghost"?
From Middle English Holi Gost, from Old English Hāliġ Gāst, a calque of Latin Spīritus Sānctus, which in turn is a calque of Ancient Greek Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον (Pneûma tò Hágion), from πνεῦμα (pneûma, “breath, vital force, soul”) + ἅγιος (hágios, “holy... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list