spooky

«spooky» in Mova's school dictionary: strange and a bit frightening, as if there might be ghosts — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (spooky, spookier, spookiest)

meaning for a pupil

1) Spooky means strange and a bit frightening, as if there might be ghosts. tree →

2) (informal) Spooky can mean strangely surprising, like an odd coincidence. tree →

3) (informal, of an animal) Easily frightened or nervous, as in a spooky horse. tree →

sense in the lessons

A favourite word for Halloween, ghost stories and dark places: it tells the reader to feel a shiver, often in a fun way. In everyday talk «that's spooky» is said about coincidences. Phrases: «spooky house», «spooky story», «spooky coincidence», «a bit spooky».

examples

• The old house on the hill looks spooky at night. tree →
• We told spooky stories around the campfire. tree →
• Our classroom is decorated with spooky bats for Halloween. tree →
• It's spooky that we both drew the same picture! tree →
• The woods were spooky and silent. tree →
• The pony is spooky and jumps at plastic bags. tree →
• The spookiest part of the film was the creaking door. tree →

note

Comes from «spook» (informal for ghost; also slang for a spy). Milder and more playful than «terrifying». Spelling: spookier, spookiest (y changes to i). The word «spook» is also an old offensive slur in the US in one sense, so use «spooky» and «spook» meaning ghost only.

In the corpora

• She puts the radio on «so it's not spooky».
• Spooky stories are fine as fun, but stop when someone is truly frightened.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «spooky» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.