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An authentic word recorded in historical dictionaries and reference literature that has no genuine historical existence in living language, having originated through a typographical error, misreading, scribal blunder, or editorial misunderstanding.
The term 'ghost word' was coined in 1886 by British philologist Walter William Skeat in his presidential address to the Philological Society of London. Skeat noted that throughout the history of printing and lexicography, accidental blunders by scribes, typesetters, and dictionary editors inadvertently created 'phantom' words that never existed in living speech. The most legendary ghost word in lexicographical history is 'dord', which appeared in Webster's New International Dictionary (Second Edition, 1934) defined as 'density': editor Austin M. Ballou had sent a note reading 'D or d, cont./ density' (indicating that either uppercase D or lowercase d was an abbreviation for density), but a typesetter read 'Dord' as a single word! Similarly, 'syllabus' arose from an early misprint of Cicero's Latin sittubas ('parchment book labels'), and 'tweed' resulted from an English clerk misreading Scottish tweel (twill).
Test any English word to explore lexicographical ghost words and phantom entries:
Verified English words exemplifying ghost word with Scrabble scores
Linguistic definitions, etymological origins, and tournament usage
In 1931, a chemistry editor wrote 'D or d, cont./ density' on an index card for Webster's dictionary. A clerk filed it as a main headword, and in 1934 Webster's published 'dord' as a noun meaning density. It remained unnoticed in print for five years until an editor discovered it in 1939.