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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
That’s what happened in the living ghost town of Randsburg and nearby Johannesburg, with populations of 35 and 113, respectively, according to the 2020 U.S. census.
—Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 12 Dec. 2024
That decline is most visible through the emergence of scores of ghost towns and villages — locations with none or virtually nil inhabitants, deserted as local populations leave or die out.
—Karen Gilchrist, CNBC, 11 Dec. 2024
Nearly 3,000 villages in Spain could turn into ghost towns and 896 villages in Japan are estimated to disappear by 2040, as younger populations migrate to cities.
—Eliot Stein, Rolling Stone, 9 Dec. 2024
An agent described his recent visit to a major LA studio lot to walking through a ghost town.
—Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 5 Dec. 2024
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Word History
First Known Use
1894, in the meaning defined above
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 21 Dec. 2024.
Kids Definition
ghost town
noun
: a town deserted because some natural resource has been used up
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