Ghost vs. Undead

(dated) The spirit; the soul of man.

The disembodied soul; the soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death

Example: ‘Everyone believed that the ghost of an old lady haunted the crypt.’;

Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image

Example: ‘not a ghost of a chance; the ghost of an idea’;

A false image formed in a telescope, camera, or other optical device by reflection from the surfaces of one or more lenses.

An unwanted image similar to and overlapping or adjacent to the main one on a television screen, caused by the transmitted image being received both directly and via reflection.

A ghostwriter.

(Internet) An unresponsive user on IRC, resulting from the user's client disconnecting without notifying the server.

(computing) An image of a file or hard disk.

(theatre) An understudy.

(espionage) A covert (and deniable) agent.

The faint image that remains after an attempt to remove graffiti.

(video games) An opponent in a racing game that follows a previously recorded route, allowing players to compete against previous best times.

A dead person whose identity is stolen by another. See ghosting.

White or pale.

Example: ‘ghost slug; ghostberry; ghostflower; ghost crab; ghost bat’;

Transparent or translucent.

Example: ‘ghost ant; ghost catfish; ghost nipper; ghost nudibranch’;

(attributive) Abandoned.

Example: ‘ghost town; ghost net; ghost ramp; ghost ship’;

(attributive) The remains of.

Example: ‘ghost cell; ghost crater; ghost image’;

(attributive) Perceived or listed but not real.

Example: ‘ghost pain; ghost cellphone vibration; ghost island; ghost voter’;

(attributive) Of cryptid, supernatural or extraterrestrial nature.

Example: ‘ghost rocket; ghost deer; ghost cat’;

(attributive) Substitute.

Example: ‘ghost writer; ghost band; ghost singer’;

To haunt; to appear to in the form of an apparition.

(obsolete) To die; to expire.

(ambitransitive) To ghostwrite.

(nautical) To sail seemingly without wind.

(computing) To copy a file or hard drive image.

(GUI) To gray out (a visual item) to indicate that it is unavailable.

To forcibly disconnect an IRC user who is using one's reserved nickname.

To appear without warning; to move quickly and quietly; to slip.

To kill.

(slang) To break up with someone without warning or explanation; to perform an act of ghosting.

The spirit; the soul of man.

Example: ‘Then gives her grieved ghost thus to lament.’;

The disembodied soul; the soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death; an apparition; a specter.

Example: ‘The mighty ghosts of our great Harrys rose.’; ‘I thought that I had died in sleep,And was a blessed ghost.’;

Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image; a phantom; a glimmering; as, not a ghost of a chance; the ghost of an idea.

Example: ‘Each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.’;

A false image formed in a telescope by reflection from the surfaces of one or more lenses.

Example: ‘And he gave up the ghost full softly.’; ‘Jacob . . . yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people’;

To die; to expire.

To appear to or haunt in the form of an apparition.

a mental representation of some haunting experience;

Example: ‘he looked like he had seen a ghost’; ‘it aroused specters from his past’;

a writer who gives the credit of authorship to someone else

the visible disembodied soul of a dead person

a suggestion of some quality;

Example: ‘there was a touch of sarcasm in his tone’; ‘he detected a ghost of a smile on her face’;

move like a ghost;

Example: ‘The masked men ghosted across the moonlit yard’;

haunt like a ghost; pursue;

Example: ‘Fear of illness haunts her’;

write for someone else;

Example: ‘How many books have you ghostwritten so far?’;

an apparition of a dead person which is believed to appear or become manifest to the living, typically as a nebulous image

Example: ‘a ghost ship’; ‘the building is haunted by the ghost of a monk’;

a slight trace or vestige of something

Example: ‘she gave the ghost of a smile’;

a faint secondary image caused by a fault in an optical system, duplicate signal transmission, etc.

act as ghostwriter of (a work)

Example: ‘his memoirs were smoothly ghosted by a journalist’;

glide smoothly and effortlessly

Example: ‘they ghosted up the river’;

end a personal relationship with (someone) by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication

Example: ‘I didn't want to ghost her, so we ended up having ‘the talk’ and it was horrible’; ‘people who ghost are primarily focused on avoiding their own emotional discomfort’; ‘being ghosted is one of the toughest ways to be dumped’;

In folklore, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike forms.

Pertaining to a corpse, though having qualities of life.

(horror fiction) Being animate, though non-living.

(horror fiction) Those creatures which are undead; that is, dead yet still animate.

Example: ‘In the zombie movie, an army of the undead accosted some nubile skinny-dipping teenagers.’;

(horror fiction) A creature that is undead; that is, dead but still animate.