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Alani Gauthier
Mr. Williams
H American Literature
5 May 2015
Spirit vs. Ghost
It was about four days ago when a thirty-nine year old woman spoke of having felt a
spirit in her presence. She was alone in her kitchen cooking dinner, and it was not until she
walked away from the stove that she felt it. A cool breeze brushing past her upper body region is
what it was. The breeze was swift and indeed I had no windows open, she explained. The
woman professed that she believed it was more than one spirit and that they were deceased
family members who came to visit and they were now leaving. This snippet of a story will
remain anonymous, but the inquiries behind spirits shall now be answered. Today people tend to
use the words spirit and ghost interchangeably, but is there not a difference between the two? To
find out, one must discover the true meanings, feelings, and decades ago.
Typically I wanted to know what people think about when they hear the word spirit or
ghost, so I conducted an anonymous survey with a sample size of forty people. With thirty of the
sample being high school students, five being adults over the age of thirty-three, and another five
being elementary school students, my results were interesting. Out of the thirty high school
students surveyed, fifteen were asked about the spirit and fifteen were asked about ghost and the
questions I asked were: what does the word mean to them and what is the first thing that comes
to find when the word is heard? Starting with spirit, twenty-six percent of the high school
students answered ghost for both answers. Another twenty-six percent gave the answer pep

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rallies for both questions and another twenty-six percent listed positive vibes for the meaning and
soul for the first thing that comes to mind. Thirteen percent said Spirit the movie is what
comes to mind and a good 6.6% answered God. Now replacing the word spirit with ghost; thirtythree percent answered dead person for both questions, twenty-six percent answered scary for
both, twelve percent said invisible, and another twelve percent said spirit for both answers.
Twenty-three percent of the total amount of high school students used spirit and ghost
interchangeably by answering ghost when I asked about spirit and answering spirit when I asked
about ghost and that is just what I needed. It was interesting that all five adults defined spirit as
the inner part of a person usually peaceful and defined ghost as an image of a person with no
flesh usually dark and scary. All five elementary students mentioned holy for spirit and scary for
ghost. Out of all the results, it was extremely interesting that all the adults gave me full
definitions rather than two word answers in which the high school and elementary school
students gave me. Perhaps a persons maturity level or age determines their meaning of certain
words or maybe the way they choose to live their life has something to do with it. There are an
abundant amount of possibilities, but in this case can it be possible that spirit and ghost reflect
the same meaning?
The word spirit has several different meanings in which I never knew existed and the
word is also used as every part of speech (Mish). The English word spirit comes from the Latin
spiritus, meaning breath, but also meaning soul, ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European
(Harper). With that being said, spirit has different connotations, but the most common meaning is
the immaterial part of man second to a religious or supernatural being (Foresman). Because the
common meaning of spirit is what it is, the word is very often mistaken or correlated with the
word ghost, and that can be both right and wrong. To start off right, a spirit is a noun, so in this

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case a spirit is defined as an immaterial part of man, a religious being, an alcoholic beverage, a
superstition, a dead person, a ghost, a movie, a mars rover, a mood, and a false image (Spirit).
Every single one of these meanings are correct and can in fact be used in both present and past
tense as well as an adjective or verb (Mish). Usage of the word spirit varies depending on what a
person is feeling or discussing at the time. Spirit is not a word that just evolved, but a word that
has existed forever and even going back to the 1920s, the common meaning is the same as our
common meaning for the word today (Harper). An example of this, He points to Christ as one
who never spoke to the hearts of men, but rather to the inner spirit of each individual (Dean
Inge Again). In this example, spirit has the meaning of an immaterial part of man, but Christ is
mentioned. It is said that Christians believe in the Holy Spirit which is the divined third person in
the trinity (Robert). Christians mention the word Holy Spirit and also refer to the Holy Spirit as
the Holy Ghost (Robert). Now in this case it is plausible to say that a spirit and a ghost is the
same thing, but wait there is more.
The feelings and emotions that stem from the word spirit are relatively positive based on
my survey and other sources. The tourist Genevieve embodied a good spirit in the new city
because of all the festivities (All Around the World). Spirit in the quote is defining ones
mood based on experience and emotion. Thinking about a sports event or a school event, spirit is
usually referred to as a good cheering type of feeling at least from all my experiences. A spirit or
spirit is or can be defined easily, but what a person thinks of that meaning is important. My
meaning of spirit is not the same as a cheerleaders meaning or the people who live next door.
Is a ghost really a spooky white shadowy figure or is that just societys representation of a
ghost? Just like spirit, the word ghost has multiple meanings and can be used with any part of
speech. Ghost is the English representative of the usual West Germanic word for supernatural

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being (Harper). A ghost is defined as a soul of a deceased human being or animal, a skinny pale
person, a spirit, and an anonymous person (Foresman). When using the word ghost as a verb, it
means holding in a hit so long that a person can not see the smoke when exhaled, to avoid
someone, to leave a certain place, to take someones items, and to kill another person (Ghost).
Out of all these meanings, the only time a person may here the word ghost is Halloween season,
the television, or if Casper is on. Around half of the American population refers to the word
ghost as some sort of haunting spirit (Harper). A ghost or the word ghost gets more publicity
than a celebrity kissing a dog. The feelings behind a ghost are not surprising, but more like
expected. A ghost can be a good or bad spirit that is usually dark in figure with a darkening mood
(Harper). This explains why a person may feel scared when having had an encounter with a
ghost.
Spirit versus ghost or ghost versus a spirit, but should versus even be in the mix
anymore? The answer is no because the words spirit and ghost are no longer opponents, instead
they are on the same team. Although spirit and ghost have some meanings that are different, both
share the same common meaning and that common meaning is used interchangeably. Two people
can have two totally different meanings of either word, but it is not because they are reading
different dictionaries. People come from different walks of life and those different walks of life
happen to include age and religious beliefs. Surveys and research shows that there is in fact no
difference between spirit and ghost, but a simple belief. There is nothing wrong with someone
creating their own definition for a word and this is where we end. A spirit is a ghost, a ghost is a
spirit, spirit is ghost, and ghost is spirit. The meaning of either one comes from how a person
perceives it to be.