as in demons
an evil spirit
in Arabic folklore, ghouls could change their shapes but had one unchanging feature: donkey's hooves for feet
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Recent Examples of ghouls
Night of the Living Dead centers all the action at a farmhouse, where seven people attempt to ward off the ghouls — without any prior knowledge of how to do so.
—
Wesley Stenzel,
Entertainment Weekly,
5 June 2026
Created by a number of its stars, Ghosts originated on the BBC in 2019, following a group of ghouls from different historical periods haunting a country house while sharing the house with its new living occupants.
—
Max Goldbart,
Deadline,
25 Mar. 2026
Here was music that pushed the genre back to the realm of ghosts and ghouls, the ideal soundtrack for doing battle with Dracula on the spiral staircase of his manor.
—
Sam Goldner,
Pitchfork,
17 Feb. 2026
Even a half-century later, the undead ghouls that descend upon survivors in a Pennsylvania farm house are timeless and the gut-punch ending couldn't be more timely.
—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
13 Feb. 2026
With Adam Roberts announcing the tempos on the baby grand piano, the ghouls in Tevye’s nightmare emerge from around the fourposter.
—
Michael Barnes,
Austin American Statesman,
4 Feb. 2026
In his masterful first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, ghouls and spirits keep chattering away, as if at a corner barbershop, while Abraham Lincoln mourns his dead 11-year-old son, Willie.
—
Pico Iyer,
Air Mail,
24 Jan. 2026
Its lead character is Harry Dresden, a professional wizard operating out of the city of Chicago in a world where ghouls, ghosts, werewolves and vampires exist in the shadows of modern society.
—
Erik Pedersen,
Oc Register,
21 Jan. 2026
No disrespect to Purnell, who perfectly calibrated Lucy’s intrinsic hopefulness in the first season and slowly begins to curdle it this go-round as Lucy spends more time among ghouls, raiders, cannibals, and various other feuding factions.
—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
16 Dec. 2025
Wesley Stenzel,
Entertainment Weekly,
5 June 2026
Created by a number of its stars, Ghosts originated on the BBC in 2019, following a group of ghouls from different historical periods haunting a country house while sharing the house with its new living occupants.
—
Max Goldbart,
Deadline,
25 Mar. 2026
Here was music that pushed the genre back to the realm of ghosts and ghouls, the ideal soundtrack for doing battle with Dracula on the spiral staircase of his manor.
—
Sam Goldner,
Pitchfork,
17 Feb. 2026
Even a half-century later, the undead ghouls that descend upon survivors in a Pennsylvania farm house are timeless and the gut-punch ending couldn't be more timely.
—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
13 Feb. 2026
With Adam Roberts announcing the tempos on the baby grand piano, the ghouls in Tevye’s nightmare emerge from around the fourposter.
—
Michael Barnes,
Austin American Statesman,
4 Feb. 2026
In his masterful first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, ghouls and spirits keep chattering away, as if at a corner barbershop, while Abraham Lincoln mourns his dead 11-year-old son, Willie.
—
Pico Iyer,
Air Mail,
24 Jan. 2026
Its lead character is Harry Dresden, a professional wizard operating out of the city of Chicago in a world where ghouls, ghosts, werewolves and vampires exist in the shadows of modern society.
—
Erik Pedersen,
Oc Register,
21 Jan. 2026
No disrespect to Purnell, who perfectly calibrated Lucy’s intrinsic hopefulness in the first season and slowly begins to curdle it this go-round as Lucy spends more time among ghouls, raiders, cannibals, and various other feuding factions.
—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
16 Dec. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ghouls
Noun
-
Eerie in a way that feels more seductive than scary, the film isn’t bewitched by its demons so much as the process of transubstantiation by which a (self)tortured young woman can transform them into grace.
-
Opportunity Babcock will arrive at camp in search of forwards who can be demons on the forecheck.
Noun
-
Typically, ghosts show up in literature when something that has been repressed escapes and becomes everyone’s problem.
-
This bed and breakfast is said to be haunted by more than a dozen spirits, including the ghosts of Civil War soldiers and a woman who once owned the early 1800s home.
Noun
-
In their respective grief, mommy issues, daughter issues, and, in the case of Armand and Daniel, daddy issues, our vampires are giving each other a run for their money over who is the most beautiful, most unwell.
-
Taylor-Johnson starred as Friedrich Harding, a skeptic set in his belief that vampires don’t exist.
Noun
-
The 152 rooms celebrate Tasmania’s cultural and creative spirit, from the contemporary paintings of thylacines and Tasmanian devils, to the Blackheart sassafras ceiling inlays.
-
But there are lots of potential devils in the details (otherwise there’d be little need for experimental reactors).
Cite this Entry
“Ghouls.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ghouls. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
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