ghost word

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A fictitious or erroneous word, originally meaningless (not used in practice), that has been published in a dictionary or similarly authoritative reference work or otherwise listed as genuine, generally as the result of misinterpretation, misreading, or typographical error.

Pronunciation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ghost word.wav

Word forms

ghost word ghost words ghostword

Etymology

Coined by Walter William Skeat in 1886; from ghost + word.

Synonyms

Related words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.