ghosting

What it means

The act of suddenly cutting off all contact with someone — no replies, no explanation — usually in a dating or friendship context. The person who does it is said to 'ghost' the other, leaving them confused and ignored.

Examples

• We had three great dates and then he started ghosting me.
• Don't just leave her on read, ghosting is so cruel.
• I got ghosted by a recruiter after two interviews.
• She ghosted the whole group chat for a month.

Where it comes from

The term took off around 2015–2016 as online dating apps made it easy to vanish on someone. It's named for the way a person disappears like a ghost, and quickly became standard dating vocabulary.

Related slang