ghoul

English

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ghoul

  • /ɡuːl/
  • /ɡʊəl/
  • /ɡʉw(ə)l/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /ɡʉl/ Northern Ireland, Scotland
  • /ɡul/ South Asia
  • /ɣul/ South Asia, literary
  • /ɡʱul/ South Asia

Rhymes with -uːl

Where it comes from

Borrowed from French goule, from Persian غول (ġul) from Arabic غُول (ḡūl).

noun ghouls · ghole

  1. A demon said to feed on corpses. The other chamber had shown a pack of ghouls and witches over-running the world of our forefathers, but this one brought the horror right into our own daily life!.
  2. A graverobber. We would not say that under no circumstances ought a grave to be opened; but it ought to be opened like a grave and not like a burglar-proof safe. […] And some of us enter it, if not without knocking, certainly without taking our hats off. We should not so much mind these eminent persons being ghoul
  3. A person with an undue interest in death and corpses, or more generally in things that are revolting and repulsive. Cars were parked on both sides of the highway, the usual ghouls, of both sexes.
  4. colloquial, derogatory A person with a callous or uncaring attitude to human life and suffering, particularly when prioritizing economic concerns. Restored to bumptiousness, Peter arrived jauntily in the kitchen, to survey Mrs Dibble's body as a spectacle new to him, and remark, "So the old trout's done herself in properly this time, I'm told. About time she did, the way she's been going on here." "Shut up, you old ghoul, and help Dr Grimsby t

Translations

Every language

noun a spirit said to feed on corpses

Españolgul, demonio necrófago
한국어구울 guul
日本語グール gūru
中文食屍鬼 /食尸鬼 shíshīguǐ
हिन्दीग़ूल ġūl, पिशाच piśāc, गूल gūl
Portuguêsghoul, carniçal, gula, guli, goule
Françaisgoule
DeutschGhul
Italianogula, ghoul
Românăvampir
Русскийгуль gulʹ, вурдала́к vurdalák, вампи́р vampír
العربيةغُول ḡūl
עבריתע׳ול

noun a graverobber

中文盜墓者 /盗墓者 dàomùzhě
DeutschGrabräuber
Românăjefuitor de morminte

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Cite this
MLA

"ghoul." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/ghoul. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

ghoul. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/ghoul

Chicago

"ghoul." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/ghoul.

BibTeX
@misc{ghoul_2026,
  title = {ghoul},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/ghoul},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}