Word.ws English Dictionary

hauntological

/hɔːntəˈlɒdʒɪkəl/

hauntological adjective: relating to hauntology.

Adjective

hauntological (comparative more hauntological, superlative most hauntological)

  1. Relating to hauntology.
    • With the appearance of hauntological history, everything long silenced, repressed, excluded, disavowed, negated by history, is blasted to the surface of events.2014, Arthur Kroker, Exits to the Posthuman Future, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN
    • We are living in what might be called a truly hauntological moment, a period of disjunction, of melancholy and precariousness, in which the recent past seems suddenly distant and we are obsessed with the idea of our lost future.2020 October 28, Ian Sansom, “The Apparition Phase by Will Maclean review – unleashing ghosts”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
  2. Using digital effects that simulate the effects of aging; reminiscent and nostalgic of obsolete media.
    • Boards of Canada also pioneered the hauntological approach to creating old-timey and elegiac atmospheres through the use of sound treatments suggestive of decay and wear-and-tear.2011, Simon Reynolds, Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past, Faber & Faber, →ISBN, page 331
    • In that spirit, some young musicians now are creating music that has been described as “hypnagogic” or “hauntological.” The melodies and rhythms are reminiscent of catchy pop songs of previous decades, but recorded in a way that simulates the effects of age — fuzzy and staticky — as if worn out or...[2011 August 4, Carl Wilson, “‘My So-Called Adulthood’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Forms of hauntological

comparativemore hauntological
superlativemost hauntological

Origin of hauntological

From hauntology + -ical.

Words formed from hauntological

Questions about hauntological

What does hauntological mean?
Hauntological means relating to hauntology.
What part of speech is hauntological?
Hauntological is an adjective.
How do you pronounce hauntological?
Hauntological is pronounced /hɔːntəˈlɒdʒɪkəl/.

Words near hauntological in the dictionary

  1. haunting
  2. haunting grounds
  3. hauntingly
  4. hauntingness
  5. hauntings
  6. hauntological
  7. hauntologically
  8. hauntologist
  9. hauntologists
  10. hauntology
  11. haunts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hauntological (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “hauntological.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hauntological. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.