ghost
To abruptly stop responding to someone and end contact without explanation.
By Cal Hewitt, Founder at Web Leveling · Researched from public sources ·
What it actually means
Ghosting usually describes ending a romantic, social, or professional connection by disappearing from communication rather than saying it is over. It often involves ignoring calls or messages and may include blocking or removing someone online. The word can be used casually, but the behavior can be painful for the person left without clarity. Safety is a meaningful exception: people may cut contact to protect themselves from someone threatening or abusive.
See the quick definition in the ghost dictionary entry.
Where it came from
Merriam-Webster traces an earlier informal verb ghost, meaning to leave suddenly without saying goodbye, to 2004. Research has also traced early online uses to mid-2000s instant-messaging contexts. The relationship sense gained broad media recognition around 2014 and 2015 as online dating became more central. A 2014 parody video called Ghoster's Paradise is sometimes credited online, but it is not reliable evidence that one person coined the established term.
No single person is credited, the origin is disputed.
Where it's popular
The term spread through English-language online dating, messaging, and social-media culture and now applies to friendships, work, and customer-service situations too.
It is not limited to dating, although dating helped popularize the term.
How it caught on
- 2004Merriam-Webster traces ghost meaning leave suddenly without saying goodbye to this year.
- 2006A scholarly discussion traces early online use to invisible-status behavior on instant-messaging systems.
- 2014Articles and online culture increasingly used ghosting for unexplained relationship disappearance.
- 2015High-profile celebrity-breakup coverage helped make ghosting widely recognizable.
- 2017Merriam-Webster added the relationship sense of ghosting.
How to use it
“We made plans twice, then he ghosted me.”
A dating or friendship connection abruptly stops responding.
“Please do not ghost the recruiter after accepting the interview.”
Using the term in a work context.
“She stopped replying because she felt unsafe, which is different from casual ghosting.”
Recognizing a safety-based reason to cut contact.
Common mix-ups
Ghosting is not simply taking time to reply or ending a conversation after a clear goodbye. It involves a withdrawal of communication with no explanation or response. It is also not a rule that someone must remain reachable in an unsafe situation.
Do you actually know it?
Can you spot a ghost?
0/31. What makes ghosting different from a normal slow reply?
2. Which setting can involve ghosting?
3. When may cutting contact be reasonable?
Related slang
Questions people ask
What does ghosting mean?
It means abruptly cutting off contact and not responding, usually without explanation.
Where did the term ghosting come from?
It grew from an earlier informal use of ghost for leaving without goodbye and became widely popular through online dating and messaging culture in the mid-2010s.
Is ghosting only for dating?
No. The term now also describes friendship, work, customer-service, and other communication situations.
What is soft ghosting?
Soft ghosting usually means fading out rather than disappearing at once, such as repeatedly reacting to messages without actually continuing the conversation.
Ghosting was added to Merriam-Webster in February 2017, after the dating sense had already spread widely in media and online conversation.
Get the weekly decode
Get this week's list as soon as you confirm: what Gen Z is actually saying, what moved up or down, and the new terms that are not in the dictionary yet. A fresh one every week after that.