Halloween is one of the most fun and colourful holidays of the year. Every year on 31 October, people put on costumes, carve pumpkins, decorate their homes, and tell scary stories. If you’re learning English, Halloween is also a great chance to learn new words. You hear words like ghost, witch, spooky, and trick-or-treat all the time in movies, TV shows, songs, and everyday conversations.
In this blog post, you’ll find out what Halloween is, where it comes from, and the most common English words related to Halloween with their meanings and example sentences. Let’s get started!
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What is Halloween? Essential Things to Know About Halloween
Halloween is a holiday that people celebrate every year on 31 October. It’s especially popular in the US, Canada, Ireland and the UK, but these days, loads of people in other countries enjoy it too. It’s a night full of costumes, pumpkins, candy and a little bit of fear. Before we get into the vocab, let’s quickly run through the story behind this creepy celebration.
The name Halloween comes from “All Hallows’ Eve”, which is the evening before All Saints’ Day. All Saints’ Day is on November 1, so Halloween is the night before. Over time, the long name got shortened, and people started calling it Halloween. It’s the name of a holiday, so we always write it with a capital H.
Halloween has been celebrated for a very long time. The holiday actually comes from Samhain (pronounced SAH-win), which was an ancient Celtic festival in Ireland and Scotland. Samhain marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the dark, cold winter. People thought that on this night, the line between the world of the living and the world of the dead became thin, and spirits came back to visit. To protect themselves, they lit big fires and wore disguises so the spirits wouldn’t recognise them. That’s one of the reasons why people still dress up for Halloween.
One of the most well-known symbols of Halloween is the jack-o’-lantern, which is basically just a pumpkin with a face carved into it and a light inside. It actually comes from an old Irish story about a man called “Stingy Jack.” So, in Ireland, people first started carving scary faces into turnips and potatoes. Later, when Irish families moved to America, they noticed that pumpkins were bigger and much easier to carve, so the pumpkin became the symbol of Halloween.
These days, Halloween is all about having a good time. A few days before the holiday, people decorate their homes with spiderwebs, bats, skeletons and tombstones, and they carve pumpkins and put candles inside them. On the night of October 31, kids and grown-ups dress up in costumes. Some people go for scary costumes, like ghosts, witches and vampires, while others dress up as superheroes or their favourite movie characters. A lot of people also go to Halloween parties, watch horror movies, or sit down together and tell ghost stories.
For kids, the best bit of Halloween is definitely trick-or-treating. They dress up, go from house to house in their neighbourhood, knock on doors and say “Trick or treat!” It’s a fun way of saying, “Give me a treat, or I’ll play a trick on you!” Obviously, no one’s pulling the wool over anyone’s eyes these days. It’s just the way kids ask for sweets these days. The person at the door usually smiles, says “Happy Halloween!” and gives them some sweets.
Most Common English Words Related to Halloween
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| pumpkin | a large, round, orange vegetable |
| jack-o'-lantern | a pumpkin with a face cut into it and a light inside |
| costume | special clothes you wear to look like someone or something else |
| mask | something that covers your face |
| candy / sweets | sweet food like chocolate (candy is American English, sweets is British English) |
| treat | something nice, like a candy or a chocolate |
| haunted house | a house where people believe ghosts live |
| broomstick | a long brush that witches fly on in stories |
| cauldron | a big, round, metal pot |
| cobweb / spiderweb | the thin net that a spider makes |
| tombstone / gravestone | a stone that shows where a person is buried |
| graveyard / cemetery | a place where dead people are buried |
| coffin | a long box where a dead body is placed |
| skull | the bones of the head |
| candle | wax with a string that you light |
| full moon | the moon when it looks like a complete circle |
| ghost | the spirit of a dead person (the "h" is silent) |
| witch | a woman with magic powers in stories |
| wizard | a man with magic powers in stories |
| vampire | a creature in stories that drinks blood |
| werewolf | a person who turns into a wolf when there is a full moon |
| zombie | a dead person who walks, in movies and games |
| mummy | a dead body wrapped in cloth, like in ancient Egypt |
| skeleton | all the bones of a body |
| monster | a big, scary, imaginary creature |
| devil | an evil spirit with horns in stories |
| bat | a small animal that flies at night |
| black cat | a cat with black fur; in old stories, a sign of bad luck |
| spider | a small animal with eight legs |
| dress up (as) | to wear a costume |
| trick-or-treat | to go from house to house and ask for candy |
| carve | to cut a shape or a face into something |
| decorate | to make a place look special for a holiday |
| hand out | to give something to each person |
| haunt | (for a ghost) to appear in a place again and again |
| scare / frighten | to make someone afraid |
| scream | to shout loudly because you are afraid |
| howl | to make a long, loud cry like a wolf |
| scary | making you feel afraid |
| spooky | a little scary, often in a fun way |
| creepy | strange and a little scary; it makes you feel uncomfortable |
| eerie | strange and scary, often because it is very quiet |
| chilling | making you feel a cold sense of fear |
| gruesome | very shocking, with a lot of blood or death |
| haunted | visited by ghosts |
| terrified | extremely afraid |
| petrified | so afraid that you can't move |
Frequently Asked Questions About Halloween Words in English and Their Meanings
When is Halloween?
Halloween is celebrated every year on October 31. In 2026, Halloween is on a Saturday.
What does the word “Halloween” mean?
Halloween is a short form of All Hallows’ Eve, which means “the evening before All Saints’ Day.” All Saints’ Day is on November 1.
What do you say on Halloween?
The most common greeting is “Happy Halloween!” Children say “Trick or treat!” when they knock on doors to ask for candy.
What is the difference between “scary,” “spooky,” and “creepy”?
Scary is the general word for something that makes you afraid. Spooky means a little scary, usually in a fun way, like Halloween decorations. Creepy describes something strange that makes you feel uncomfortable, like an old doll with strange eyes.
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