ghost town

noun

: a once-flourishing town wholly or nearly deserted usually as a result of the exhaustion of some natural resource

Examples of ghost town in a Sentence

After all the gold was mined, the place became a ghost town.
Recent Examples on the Web In July 1881, the Wabash Railroad ran its first train through Van Buren Township, three miles south of Belleville, and Michigan Central built a line about three miles north of Rawsonville — before long the area was a ghost town. Detroit Free Press, 4 Mar. 2024 Comedy Central has become an original programming ghost town, with most original product in the corporate family going over to Paramount+. Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 12 Feb. 2024 Then in 2020, the pandemic turned Las Vegas into a ghost town. Peter S. Goodman Bridget Bennett, New York Times, 5 Feb. 2024 In those days, even the permanent residents would leave town in the summer, leaving Miami Beach a virtual ghost town. Allen Lockshin, Miami Herald, 30 Jan. 2024 Michael Lee-Chang, a second-year student at Sacramento State, said the campus looked like a ghost town. Debbie Truong, Los Angeles Times, 23 Jan. 2024 Miami — If politicians are right about what people want, Miami should be a ghost town. Dominic Pino, National Review, 3 Feb. 2024 The American West is littered with company towns that became ghost towns. Michael Waters, The New Yorker, 4 Jan. 2024 Today Sderot remains largely a ghost town, with estimates of just 5,000 residents remaining out of a prewar population of 36,000. Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 Dec. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ghost town.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1894, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of ghost town was in 1894

Dictionary Entries Near ghost town

Cite this Entry

“Ghost town.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ghost%20town. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

ghost town

noun
: a town deserted because some natural resource has been used up

More from Merriam-Webster on ghost town

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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