Use haunt for places linked with ghosts, especially houses, roads, castles, rooms, and other settings in stories or local legends. The passive form be haunted is very common.
Use haunt for places linked with ghosts, especially houses, roads, castles, rooms, and other settings in stories or local legends. The passive form be haunted is very common.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| The ghost haunts to the old house | The ghost haunts the old house |
| The old house is haunt by a ghost | The old house is haunted by a ghost |
| A ghost haunted in the corridor | A ghost haunted the corridor |
Use haunt when something stays in the mind in a painful, unsettling, or hard-to-forget way. It is often used with memories, guilt, images, questions, and past events.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| She haunted the memory of the accident | The memory of the accident haunted her |
| That mistake is still haunt me | That mistake still haunts me |
| He is haunting by guilt | He is haunted by guilt |
Use haunt in this sense for repeated visits. It can sound slightly literary, playful, or old-fashioned when used about ordinary places.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| They haunt to the same cafe every Friday | They haunt the same cafe every Friday |
| He haunts in old bookshops | He haunts old bookshops |
| We are haunting at that record store | We haunt that record store |
Use haunt as a noun for a familiar place someone regularly goes to. It is common in phrases like favorite haunt and old haunt.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| The bar is favorite haunt | The bar is a favorite haunt |
| We returned to old haunt | We returned to our old haunt |
| This cafe is haunt of artists | This cafe is a haunt of artists |
Use haunt for repeated presence, whether literal, mental, or social. The ghost sense and the memory sense are the most common in modern English, while the visit-often sense can sound more literary.
The ghost haunts the house, not haunts to the house. In the mental sense, the memory or guilt usually does the haunting, and the person is haunted by it.
From Middle English haunten or hanten, meaning to frequent, dwell in, or practice, borrowed from Anglo-French and Old French hanter. Its deeper origin is uncertain, but it has often been linked with Germanic words connected to home and dwelling. The ghostly sense grew naturally from the older idea of repeatedly visiting or occupying a place.
What does haunt mean?
It can mean to appear as a ghost, to trouble someone's mind repeatedly, to visit a place often, or a place someone regularly visits.
Is haunt a verb or a noun?
It is both. As a verb, a ghost, memory, or regular visitor can haunt something. As a noun, a haunt is a regular place.
What does haunted by a memory mean?
It means the memory keeps coming back and upsetting or disturbing someone.
What is a favorite haunt?
A favorite haunt is a place someone likes and visits often, such as a cafe, bar, shop, or park.
Can people haunt a place?
Yes. In a non-ghost sense, people can haunt a place if they go there often, though this can sound literary or playful.
What is the past tense of haunt?
The regular past tense and past participle are haunted.
What are synonyms of haunt?
For ghosts, synonyms include inhabit and appear in. For memories, trouble, torment, and plague are close. For places, frequent and hangout are useful.