Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Ghoul |
GhoulNoun1. Someone who takes bodies from graves and sells them for anatomical dissection. 2. An evil spirit or ghost. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "ghoul" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1862. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Satire | GHOUL, n. A demon addicted to the reprehensible habit of devouring the dead. The existence of ghouls has been disputed by that class of controversialists who are more concerned to deprive the world of comforting beliefs than to give it anything good in their place. In 1640 Father Secchi saw one in a cemetery near Florence and frightened it away with the sign of the cross. He describes it as gifted with many heads an an uncommon allowance of limbs, and he saw it in more than one place at a time. The good man was coming away from dinner at the time and explains that if he had not been "heavy with eating" he would have seized the demon at all hazards. Atholston relates that a ghoul was caught by some sturdy peasants in a churchyard at Sudbury and ducked in a horsepond. (He appears to think that so distinguished a criminal should have been ducked in a tank of rosewater.) The water turned at once to blood "and so contynues unto ys daye." The pond has since been bled with a ditch. As late as the beginning of the fourteenth century a ghoul was cornered in the crypt of the cathedral at Amiens and the whole population surrounded the place. Twenty armed men with a priest at their head, bearing a crucifix, entered and captured the ghoul, which, thinking to escape by the stratagem, had transformed itself to the semblance of a well known citizen, but was nevertheless hanged, drawn and quartered in the midst of hideous popular orgies. The citizen whose shape the demon had assumed was so affected by the sinister occurrence that he never again showed himself in Amiens and his fate remains a mystery. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Literature | Ghoul (See Fairy .). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: GhoulSynonyms: body snatcher (n), graverobber (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Demon | Vampire, ghoul; afreet, barghest, Loki; ogre, ogress; gnome, gin, jinn, imp, deev, lamia; bogie, bogeyman, bogle; nis, kobold, flibbertigibbet, fairy, brownie, pixy, elf, dwarf, urchin; Puck, Robin Goodfellow; leprechaun, Cluricaune, troll, dwerger, sprite, ouphe, bad fairy, nix, nixie, pigwidgeon, will-o'-the wisp. |
Evil doer | Cannibal; anthropophagus, anthropophagist; bloodsucker, vampire, ogre, ghoul, gorilla, vulture; gyrfalcon, gerfalcon. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Ghoul |
| English words defined with "ghoul": Ghole. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "ghoul": Afriet ♦ GHOUL. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Kill the brain, and you kill the ghoul. (Night of the Living Dead; writing credit: George A. Romero; John A. Russo) | |
Lyrics | 'Cause I can thrill you more than any ghoul who would dare to try (Thriller; performing artist: Michael Jackson) Girl I can thrill you more than any ghoul who would dare to try (Thriller; performing artist: Michael Jackson) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Ghoul School (1965) Boy Meets Ghoul (1965) Nobody's Ghoul (1962) The Mad Ghoul (1943) Ghoul Panic (2000) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
 | Boo; ghost; scare; scary; sneak up; sneaked up; surprise; surprising; sneaking up; ghoul; phantom; poltergeist; Halloween. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Ghoul" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 88.89% of the time. "Ghoul" is used about 27 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 88.89% | 24 | 71,196 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 7.41% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Noun (proper) | 3.7% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 27 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "ghoul": ghoul-mask. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "ghoul"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | grabitës varresh, vampir (vampire). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | نباش القبور (grave digger), غول (alcohol, bogey, goblin, hobgoblin, ogre), روح شريرة (evil spirit, ghost, poltergeist). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | таласъм, крадец на трупове (body snatcher), вампир (bogey, vampire, vampire bat, werwolf). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 食尸鬼. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | démon (daemon, demon, fiend). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | غول(فارسی است). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | goule, vampire, satin, déterreur de cadavres. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | ghul, mensch mit schaurigen gelüsten. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | βρικόλακασ, λάμια (mackerel shark, porbeagle, porbeagle shark). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | שו"" קברים. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | vámpír (vampire, vampire-bat). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | fantasma (apparition, bogeyman, ghost, phantom, shadow, specter, spectre, wraith), demone che divora i cadaveri. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | "鬼 (brat, kids), クロ 明礬 (chlorella, chlorophyll, chloroprene rubber, choir, chrome alum, croissant, cunnilingus, good, good morning, Gould, gourmand, gourmet, Guam, Guatamala, Gungnir, kvas, quartet, sniff). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | がき (brat, kids), グール . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 도굴꾼. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | gowl. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | oulghay espiritual (immaterial, mental, spiritual, unworldly), espírito que ataca cadáveres, espírito dos contos orientais. (various references) vampir (lamia, vampire), jefuitor de morminte. (various references) вурдалак (vampire), вампир (vampire, vampire bat). (various references) zao duh (evil spirit, goblin). (various references) espíritu malo, espíritu cruel, demonio necrófago. (various references) ond ande (daemon, demon, evil spirit, fiend, incubus). (various references) ผีที่กินศพ. (various references) gulyabani (bogey, bogie, bogy, Goblin, hob), kötü niyetli kimse, hortlak (ghost, phantom, spook), cadı (bitch, gorgon, hag, hellcat, old cat, shrewish, witch). (various references) упир, цвинтарний злодій, вовкулака. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "ghoul": ghoulie, ghoulies, ghoulish, ghoulishly, ghoulishness, ghoulishnesses, ghouls. (additional references) | |
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"Ghoul" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Choul, dholuo, gaou, Gcho, geolu, Ghaus, Gheel, Ghiolla, Gho, Ghoe, ghoit, ghoud, ghoule, ghout, Ghu, ghul, Ghulum, gnou, gogul, Gokul, gouhl, gouk, goul, goule, groul, Gzhel, houl. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words ending with "oul": Boul, Joul, Troul, Woul. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: lough. | |
| Words within the letters "g-h-l-o-u" | |
-2 letters: gul, hog, hug, log, lug, ugh. | |
-3 letters: go, ho, lo, oh, uh. | |
| Words containing the letters "g-h-l-o-u" | |
+1 letter: clough, ghouls, loughs, plough, slough. | |
+2 letters: cloughs, ghoulie, goulash, ploughs, roughly, sloughs, sloughy, toughly. | |
+3 letters: although, bunghole, furlough, ghoulies, ghoulish, gunkhole, hulloing, outlaugh, ploughed, plougher, roughleg, shogunal, sloughed. | |
+4 letters: bungholes, doughlike, doughtily, furloughs, goalmouth, goulashes, grouchily, guilloche, gunkholed, gunkholes, homologue, hourglass, houseling, hugeously, hulloaing, longhouse, onslaught, outlaughs, ploughers, ploughing, roguishly, roughlegs, slouching, sloughier, sloughing, slungshot, theologue, throughly, upholding. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)47 68 6F 75 6C |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)--. .... --- ..- .-.. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000111 01101000 01101111 01110101 01101100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)G h o u l |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0047 0068 006F 0075 006C |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)4174818778 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Sounds 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Orthography 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
