One emoji has ghost in its name: Ghost, U+1F47B, filed by Unicode between a goblin and an alien. Under it are 73 more picks for ghost emoji copy and paste: haunts, witnesses, text ghosts, lines and ASCII drawings.
Read the full guide
Scary, not scared, and officially silly
CLDR, Unicode's list of search words, gives the ghost fourteen. Three find it alone: ghost, boo and haunting. Scary is on the list and scared is not, which is the right way round. Silly is there too, shared only with the Goose; nobody has explained either. CLDR lists nothing under haunted, phantom or spooky, so those searches run on words we added.
Why a sheet, and why the chains
Wikipedia's Ghost article says ghosts are often depicted covered in a shroud or dragging chains, and that the sheeted ghost gained ground on stage in the 19th century because one in armour clanked and creaked. Hence Chains, Ball and chain and Sheet, with sneakers.
Tips
Where emoji are refused, seven of the ten text ghosts are keyboard characters only, and one line comes without emoji.
Goose, from Emoji 15.0, is the newest tile here, so an older phone shows it as an empty box.
In Ghost, mid-speech, type over the speech, nine characters at most. All six ASCII ghosts want a monospaced font.
Questions and answers
How many ghost emoji are there?
One. Ghost arrived in Emoji 0.6 and nothing has joined it since. Two more characters have ghost in their Unicode names, both Chinese dictionary radicals that point to Ghost, as a Han character, U+9B3C. The Halloween page borrows the emoji.
Why does a ghost say boo?
To startle. Wiktionary says boo was coined to create a loud and startling sound, and lists peekaboo among the words derived from it, hence the combo Peekaboo.
Is there a ghost in plain text?
Several. Unihan opens its definition of U+9B3C with the word ghost. εΉ½ι is the Japanese word, yurei. A syllable with a hem, U+15E3, is a letter with a domed head and a wavy hem. One-line ASCII art has more.
π½AlienU+1F47D. The neighbour on the other side. Also a creature and a monster by CLDR, and also from a fairytale, which seems generous. Emoji 0.6.
π»GhostU+1F47B. The one ghost emoji, and the only thing CLDR files under ghost, boo or haunting. Unicode keeps it among the faces in costume, between the goblin and the alien. No skin tones, no text form. Emoji 0.6.
πΊGoblinU+1F47A. The ghost's neighbour on one side in Unicode's list of eight faces in costume. CLDR files both under creature, monster and fairytale. Emoji 0.6.
πͺΏGooseU+1FABF. CLDR files two emoji under silly: the ghost and this goose. Nobody has explained either. Emoji 15.0.
πSmiling face with haloU+1F607. The one emoji CLDR files under spirit. The ghost is not filed there. Emoji 1.0.
Show all 74 ghost picks (69 more)
Where it haunts 13
ποΈBedU+1F6CF U+FE0F. Filed under sleep and hotel. What is underneath is not recorded. Emoji 0.7.
π―οΈCandleU+1F56F U+FE0F. Two search words: candle and light. For reading ghost stories by. Emoji 0.7.
π°CastleU+1F3F0. Three search words: building, castle and European. Turrets, and a great many corridors. Emoji 0.6.
βοΈChainsU+26D3 U+FE0F. Wikipedia's Ghost article says ghosts are often depicted as covered in a shroud or dragging chains. CLDR gives this two words, chain and chains. Emoji 0.7.
π¨Dashing awayU+1F4A8. Filed under gone, away and smoke. The exit. Emoji 0.6.
ποΈDerelict houseU+1F3DA U+FE0F. CLDR files nothing under haunted. Wikipedia's Ghost article says a place where ghosts are reported is described as haunted, and this is the nearest building. Emoji 0.7.
πͺDoorU+1F6AA. CLDR files it under closet, which is where the noise came from. Emoji 0.6.
πΆβπ«οΈFace in cloudsU+1F636 U+200D U+1F32B U+FE0F. The third: a sum, the face without a mouth joined to the fog. Absentminded, by its search words. Emoji 13.1.
π«οΈFogU+1F32B U+FE0F. One of three emoji CLDR files under fog. It files nothing under mist. Emoji 0.7.
πFoggyU+1F301. The second of the three under fog: a city view with the view removed. Emoji 0.6.
πNew moonU+1F311. One of two emoji CLDR files under dark. The other is a pair of sunglasses. Emoji 0.6.
ποΈOld keyU+1F5DD U+FE0F. Filed under clue, lock and old. Every haunted house has one that fits nothing. Emoji 0.7.
πͺWindowU+1FA9F. The one emoji CLDR files under transparent. The ghost would like a word. Emoji 13.0.
Those who saw it 9
π°Anxious face with sweatU+1F630. Filed under eek and yikes, in case you wondered how CLDR spells them. Emoji 0.6.
π«₯Dotted line faceU+1FAE5. The one emoji CLDR files under invisible, and one of two under disappear. A colleague, more or less. Emoji 14.0.
πEyesU+1F440. Filed under looking and omg. In the dark, the only part of anybody that shows. Emoji 0.6.
π±Face screaming in fearU+1F631. The one emoji CLDR files under scream. Emoji 0.6.
π«£Face with peeking eyeU+1FAE3. The one emoji filed under peek. Scared, but wants to know how it ends. Emoji 14.0.
π¨Fearful faceU+1F628. One of nine emoji under scared. The ghost is filed under scary and not under scared, which is the right way round. Emoji 0.6.
π¦FlashlightU+1F526. Filed under torch as well, so the search finds it either way. Emoji 0.6.
πSee-no-evil monkeyU+1F648. Also filed under scared. Knows the ghost is there and would rather not. Emoji 0.6.
π€«Shushing faceU+1F92B. One of two emoji filed under shh. Did you hear that? Emoji 5.0.
Ghost symbols in plain text 6
εΉ½ιYurei, the Japanese word, in two characters
α£A syllable with a hemU+15E3 Canadian syllabics carrier tto. Unicode names it Canadian syllabics Carrier tto. It spells a sound, and it happens to have a domed head and a wavy hem.
⻀Ghost, as a CJK radicalU+2EE4 CJK radical ghost. The other radical. Unicode's notes call it a variant of Kangxi radical 194. It shows as an empty box where no font has it.
ι¬ΌGhost, as a Han characterU+9B3C. The character both radicals point to. Unihan opens its definition with the word ghost.
βΏGhost, as a Kangxi radicalU+2FC1 Kangxi radical ghost. Three characters have ghost in the name: the emoji and two radicals. This is Kangxi radical 194, a heading in a Chinese dictionary.
ε½±Shadow, as a Han characterU+5F71. Unihan defines it as shadow; image, reflection; photograph. The ghost has none of these.
Text ghosts that fit on one line 10
( . . )Mostly invisible: two dots and the brackets
Κβ’Μ«Ν‘β’ΚThe small one: two phonetic letters, two bullets
ΰΌΌ γ€ βΉ βΉ ΰΌ½γ€Arms out, between two Tibetan brackets
α£ α£ α£Three syllables out for a drift, no emoji
<(o o)>Arms out, keyboard only
___/(o o)\___Looking over a wall
~(o o)~Drifting, keyboard only
(o o)~~~Leaving, tail last
( o|##|o )Halfway through a wall
wooOOOoooThe sound, rising and falling
Ghost lines 13
π» Boo π»The whole speech
π» Creep it real π»Motto
π» Fa-boo-lous π»Compliment
π» Happy haunting π»Halloween greeting
π» Just drifting through π»Status update
π» No body to go with π»RSVP, with regrets
~(o o)~ Boo ~(o o)~No emoji: a keyboard ghost each side
π―οΈ One more ghost story π―οΈBedtime negotiation
π» Out of office, indefinitely π»Auto-reply
π» Sorry I ghosted you. Force of habit π»Apology, of a sort
π» Too cute to spook π»Caption for the costume photo
π» Transparent about my feelings π»Bio line
π» You look like you have seen me π»Greeting, on arrival
ASCII ghosts 6
Ball and chainWikipedia's Ghost article says ghosts are often depicted dragging chains. This one has four links and would like it noted that they are heavy. Plain ASCII, 18 columns wide.
Ghost in the windowFour panes, one of them occupied. Plain ASCII, 17 columns wide.
Ghost, mid-speechA small ghost and everything it has to say. Type over the speech, nine characters at most, to keep the bubble square. Plain ASCII, 22 columns wide.
Round the doorA door, a knob, and half a ghost deciding whether to come in. Plain ASCII, 14 columns wide.
Sheet, with sneakersThe costume, shoes showing. Wikipedia's Ghost article says the sheeted ghost gained ground on stage in the 19th century, because a ghost in armour clanked and creaked. Plain ASCII, 16 columns wide.
Under the bedHeadboard, pillow, blanket, and two eyes where the slippers should be. Plain ASCII, 23 columns wide.
Ghost combos 12
π»π»π»A committeeGhost 3 times. One ghost is a haunting. Three have to agree on things.
ππ‘Ghost lightPerforming arts, then light bulb. Wikipedia's Ghost light article: an electric light left on the stage of a theatre when the theatre is unoccupied and would otherwise be completely dark. No ghost required.
π»β΅Ghost shipGhost, then sailboat. Crew of one.
π¦ππ»Ghost storyFlashlight, then open book, then ghost. Wikipedia's Ghost story article defines one as any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost. This one includes a ghost.
π»ππGhost trainGhost, then locomotive, then railway car. Runs to no timetable anyone has seen.
π»ποΈGhostwriterGhost, then fountain pen. Writes the book, leaves no name on it.
ποΈπ»Haunted, by the look of itDerelict house, then ghost. Wikipedia's Haunted house article also offers spook house and ghost house.
π»π§Ίπ«§Laundry dayGhost, then basket, then bubbles. CLDR files the basket under laundry. A sheet has to be washed some time.
π¬π»Left on readSpeech balloon, then ghost. Ghosting, the modern kind: a message, then nothing.
π»πNoisy ghostGhost, then speaker high volume. Wikipedia's Poltergeist article glosses the German word as rumbling ghost or noisy spirit.
π«£π»PeekabooFace with peeking eye, then ghost. Wikipedia's Peekaboo article: one player hides their face, pops back into view and says the word. Wiktionary lists peekaboo among the words derived from boo.
π»βοΈRattling chainsGhost, then chains. The traditional accessory. See the chains, above.
How this list was compiled: Built by script on 2026-09-19, not typed by hand. The emoji, their names, code points and Emoji version numbers come from emoji-test.txt, version 18.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/emoji/emoji-test.txt); names are the CLDR short names printed in that file, in sentence case. The search words are from the CLDR English annotations (https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/annotations/en.xml and https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/annotationsDerived/en.xml, main branch). CLDR gives the ghost fourteen search words (boo, creature, excited, face, fairy, fairytale, fantasy, ghost, halloween, haunting, monster, scary, silly, tale); ghost, boo and haunting find it alone; silly finds the ghost and the goose; spirit finds the smiling face with halo alone; scary finds ten emoji, the ghost among them, and scared nine, the ghost not among them; fog finds three; invisible, transparent, scream, peek, derelict and laundry find one each; and CLDR lists nothing for haunted, phantom, spectre, specter, spooky, sheet, soul, mist, wisp, apparition, poltergeist, attic, midnight, vanish or blanket. The text forms come from emoji-variation-sequences.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/emoji/emoji-variation-sequences.txt). Every character that is not an emoji was checked against UnicodeData.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt), and a note that names a character uses its name from that file. Notes about what a character is used for come from the annotations in NamesList.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/NamesList.txt). Three characters have GHOST in the name (U+2EE4 CJK radical ghost, noted as a variant of Kangxi Radical 194, U+2FC1 Kangxi radical ghost and the emoji U+1F47B); none has PHANTOM, SPECTRE, SPECTER, SPOOK or HAUNT. U+15E3 is Canadian syllabics Carrier tto. None of the plain characters used as a tile is in emoji-test.txt. Meanings of Chinese characters come from the kDefinition field of Unihan_Readings.txt in Unihan.zip, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/Unihan.zip). What the page says about ghosts in folklore and on stage is from English Wikipedia, read as wikitext on 2026-09-19: Ghost (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost), Poltergeist (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poltergeist), Ghost story (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_story), Ghost light (theatre) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_light_(theatre)), Peekaboo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peekaboo), Yurei (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%ABrei; the article carries a more-footnotes tag) and Haunted house (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_house); and from English Wiktionary, boo (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/boo), read the same day. Two of the 10 one-line text ghosts (the one between Tibetan brackets and the small one with two bullets) have circulated for years without an author and are named in this site's plan; the other 8, the 13 lines, the 6 ASCII drawings and the 12 combos are this site's own work: the emoji in them are fetched by name from emoji-test.txt, the plain characters by code point from UnicodeData.txt, and the drawings were made for this page. All sources were checked on 2026-09-19. Licence: own work