ghast

G2H4A1S1T1
/ɡæst//ɡɑːst/

adjective

Having a ghastly appearance; weird.

OriginMiddle English gasten ← Old English gāstan →
UncommonScrabble 9
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Meanings

ghast1

verbghast (third-person singular simple present ghasts, present participle ghasting, simple past and past participle ghasted)

present singular third person ghasts · participle present ghasting · participle past ghasted · past ghasted

  1. alternativeAlternative form of gast.

ghast2

adjectiveghast (comparative more ghast, superlative most ghast)

comparative more ghast · superlative most ghast

  1. Having a ghastly appearance; weird.
nounghast (plural ghasts)

plural ghasts

  1. fantasyAn evil spirit or monster; a ghoul.

    The cliff-ghast wrenched off the fox's head, and fought his brothers for the entrails.

    2000, Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass
    2 more examples

    The most powerful of all undead creatures, ghasts feed on ghosts, dead souls and, most especially, live ones. They want to take over Iltior and set up a ghast empire.

    2007, Ian Irvine, Runcible Jones & the Buried City

    A malamanteau, or malapropistically used neologism that is also a portmanteau (yeah, isn't that a conceptual mouthful), the ghast was an incidental combination of ghost and ghastly […] As the post-interview continued, Carlos and I laughed as we recognized his malamanteau, what he chucklingly redescribed as a "ghastly ghost" […] "Ghast" is a neologism and portmanteau of ghost and ghastly that was used malapropistically. This, thus, constitutes a malamanteau.

    2022, James Joshua Coleman, “The Fabulous Rhetorics of Queer Inhumanity”, in Jacqueline Rhodes, Jonathan Alexander, editors, The Routledge Handbook of Queer Rhetoric, New York: Routledge, →ISBN

Origin

ghast · verb

  1. Old Englishgāstan“to meditate”
  2. Middle Englishgasten
  3. Englishghast

Variation of gast, from Middle English gasten, from Old English gāstan (“to meditate”) and gǣstan (“to gast, frighten, afflict, torment”). More at gast. Spelling influenced by ghost.

More words from Middle English, Old English

Full word history & related roots →

ghast · adjective, noun

Poetic abbreviation of ghastly. Use as a noun influenced by ghost.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

French épouvant
  • épouvantevil spirit or monster

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

ghats
Cite this entry
APA

ghast. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ghast

MLA

“ghast.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ghast. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ghast,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ghast.

Source: ghast on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.