ghost word

G g

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [gohst wurd]
- /goʊst wɜrd/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [gohst wurd]
- /goʊst wɜrd/

Definitions of ghost word words

noun ghost word a word that has come into existence by error rather than by normal linguistic transmission, as through the mistaken reading of a manuscript, a scribal error, or a misprint. 1
noun ghost word a word that has entered the language through the perpetuation, in dictionaries, etc, of an error 0
noun ghost word a word created through misreading of manuscripts, misunderstanding of grammatical elements, etc. and never really established in a language 0

See all 3 definitions of ghost word

Information block about the term

Origin of ghost word

First appearance:

before 1885

One of the 21% newest English words

First recorded in 1885-90

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Ghost word

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Ghost word

ghost word popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 42% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

According to our data about 56% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.

ghost word usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer