Pronunciation

How to pronounce “ghost

“ghost” is pronounced /ɡoʊst/ (GOHST) in American English and /ɡəʊst/ in British English — one syllable.
The sound

Say “ghost” in one beat

Say it like this

ghost

/ɡoʊst/

The voice you hear here is American; the British form is /ɡəʊst/ (see the table below), and a British voice is available in the app's settings.

1 beat
  1. ghostɡoʊst
IPA (American)
/ɡoʊst/
IPA (British)
/ɡəʊst/
Respelling
GOHST
Syllables
1 — ghost
Stress
One syllable, so the whole word carries the beat — say /ɡoʊst/ in one unbroken piece rather than clipping the vowel.
Part of speech
noun, verb
Difficulty
Pro — the sounds are ordinary, the rhythm is where it slips
Accents

American and British are not the same here

American

/ɡoʊst/

British

/ɡəʊst/

No audio here: sayit’s voice is American, so a British button would play the American word. Read the transcription instead.

Meaning

What “ghost” means

  1. noun

    a mental representation of some haunting experience

    he looked like he had seen a ghost

  2. noun

    a writer who gives the credit of authorship to someone else

  3. noun

    the visible disembodied soul of a dead person

Say it in a sentence

Every old house here has a ghost story attached to it.
Sound by sound

The sounds inside this word

4 sounds, in the order you say them

Each sound has its own page: where the tongue goes, what it is usually confused with, and words to drill it on.

Questions

ghost”, answered

How do you pronounce “ghost”?

“ghost” is pronounced /ɡoʊst/ (GOHST) in American English and /ɡəʊst/ in British English — one syllable. It is one unbroken piece — /ɡoʊst/ — with no pause anywhere inside it.

How many syllables does “ghost” have?

One, despite the 1 vowel letters in the spelling. The whole word is /ɡoʊst/ — a single beat.

Is “ghost” said differently in British English?

Yes. American English says /ɡoʊst/ (GOHST); British English says /ɡəʊst/. Both are correct — choose the accent you are learning and stay inside it.

What does “ghost” mean?

As a noun: a mental representation of some haunting experience For example: “he looked like he had seen a ghost” It carries 2 other senses as well — all of them said the same way.

Where is the stress in “ghost”?

One syllable, so the whole word carries the beat — say /ɡoʊst/ in one unbroken piece rather than clipping the vowel.

Practise this word

Now say “ghost” and see every sound

Record it once and sayit lines your audio up against the target sound by sound — what landed, what slipped, and what it sounded like instead.