Meaning
Abruptly ending a relationship or communication with someone by cutting off all contact and ignoring their attempts to reach out, without any explanation. The word is used everywhere from casual dating to friendships, jobs, and business contacts, though the romantic sense is the default. Informal and broadly negative, naming behaviour widely considered hurtful or cowardly, though it is also used matter-of-factly. Regional use: General English; strongest in online dating contexts.
Origin
The verb ghost in the sense of leaving suddenly has roots traced by linguists to African American Vernacular English. The dating sense spread through online forums in the 2000s and early 2010s, then broke into mainstream coverage in 2015 through a wave of articles on high-profile celebrity breakups, including Valeriya Safronova's New York Times piece 'Exes Explain Ghosting, the Ultimate Silent Treatment' of 26 June 2015. The New York Times later traced this history in its 2023 language column 'The Spirited History of Ghost', and Collins English Dictionary added the term in 2015. Merriam-Webster tracked it as a word it was watching before formally adding the verb sense, defined as suddenly cutting off all contact with someone.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- ghost
- ghosted
- ghoster
- to ghost someone
Usage Examples
- After two months of dates he ghosted her, leaving her texts unread and questions unanswered.
- Ghosting a job candidate after three interviews is unprofessional, but it happens more than employers admit.
- She suspected she was being ghosted when every message went unanswered for a week.