Meaning & use

ghastly

adjective·Advanced

Extremely unpleasant, frightening, or shocking, often due to appearing pale or deathlike.

See it in a sentence

The car accident left a ghastly scene that witnesses struggled to describe.

He looked ghastly after staying up all night with a fever.

A note on using this word

Can describe something genuinely horrifying or, in British English, be used more mildly for something simply very bad.

Words with a similar meaning

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Words with an opposite meaning

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