Halloween English Vocabulary: 45 Words and Phrases to Learn

Halloween is one of the easiest times of year to learn real English, because it comes with its own little world of words: costumes, pumpkins, ghosts, and that one phrase every child shouts at the door. Here are 45 Halloween words and phrases, grouped so they actually stick, with clear examples and the handful of mistakes German and Spanish speakers make most. Whether you're teaching your kids a few words or just want to chat about the 31st of October, this is everything you need.

Quick honesty first. I grew up in Germany, where Halloween was always a bit smaller than it is in the English-speaking world. We had it, but it never felt as central as, say, Karneval. Then I moved to Peru at 16, and I noticed Halloween there too, with its own local flavour. So I understand the feeling of knowing a holiday exists without quite having the words for it in English. That's exactly the gap this article closes.

Where the words come from (30 seconds of background)

The word Halloween is short for "All Hallows' Eve," the evening before All Saints' Day on the 1st of November. "Hallow" is an old English word for a saint or a holy person. You don't need the history to enjoy the night, but it explains why the name looks a little strange. One useful note straight away: we say Halloween happens on a date, never "in" a date.

The essential Halloween nouns (1 to 12)

Start with the things you can point at. These twelve nouns cover almost every Halloween photo you'll ever see.

1 to 6: the classic characters

A ghost is the spirit of a dead person. A witch flies on a broomstick and often has a black cat. A vampire drinks blood and sleeps in a coffin (think Dracula). A skeleton is the set of bones inside a body. A zombie is a dead body that walks again, very popular in films and series. And a monster is the general word for any big, frightening creature.

7 to 12: the objects and decorations

A pumpkin is the large orange vegetable. Once you cut a face into it and add a light, it becomes a jack-o'-lantern. A costume is the outfit you wear to look like someone else. A mask covers your face. A spider web (or cobweb) is the sticky net a spider makes, and fake ones are a cheap, classic decoration. A haunted house is a house where ghosts are said to live.

Notice the pronunciation of pumpkin: the "p" in the middle almost disappears, so it sounds like "PUMP-kin," not "pump-KEEN." Small thing, but it's the kind of detail that makes you sound natural.

Spooky adjectives (13 to 21): say more than "scary"

Most learners know "scary" and stop there. English has a whole shelf of words for different shades of fear, and using the right one makes you sound far more fluent. Here are the ones worth owning.

Scary is the everyday word for something that frightens you. Spooky is lighter and more playful, the perfect Halloween word for decorations and fun frights. Creepy describes something that makes you uneasy in a strange, uncomfortable way, like a doll that seems to watch you. Eerie is a quiet, mysterious kind of strange (an eerie silence). Spine-chilling and terrifying are the strong ones, real fear. Haunted means a place has ghosts. Spooky aside, you'll also hear freaky (odd and a bit alarming) and ghoulish (connected to death in a dark, gruesome way).

How to practise: next time you watch something, describe it with a precise word. Was it genuinely terrifying, or just a bit creepy? Choosing between them is where real vocabulary lives.

Trick-or-treating: the phrases people actually say (22 to 30)

This is the heart of the night, and it's wonderfully simple. Children dress up, walk from house to house, knock, and say the magic words. Here's how it really sounds.

The children say "Trick or treat!" The idea behind it: give me a treat, or I'll play a trick on you. In practice nobody plays tricks anymore, it's all friendly. The adult at the door hands out sweets (British English) or candy (American English) and often says "What a great costume." The children say "Thank you" and "Happy Halloween" as they leave.

A few more useful ones: to dress up as (wear a costume of), to go trick-or-treating (the activity itself), and bucket or candy bag (what kids carry to collect their sweets). If a house has its lights off, it usually means "we're not taking part this year," so you skip it.

Halloween verbs (31 to 38): the actions of the night

Vocabulary isn't only nouns. These verbs are what you actually do at Halloween, and each one pairs with a specific little word (a preposition) that learners often get wrong.

You carve a pumpkin (cut a shape into it with a knife). You decorate the house. You dress up as a character. You scare someone (make them afraid) or get scared yourself. A ghost haunts a house. You hand out or give out sweets. And when something jumps out suddenly, you jump or you scream.

How to fix it: learn the verb together with its preposition, as one chunk, "dress up as," "carve into," "hand out." Memorising them separately is exactly why they come out wrong under pressure.

Fun Halloween idioms (39 to 45): sound like a native

English is full of spooky expressions you can use all year, not just in October. These are genuinely common, so they're worth learning properly.

A skeleton in the closet means a secret from your past you'd rather hide. Scared stiff (or scared to death) means extremely frightened. To make your blood run cold means to terrify you. If something sends shivers down your spine, it frightens or thrills you. A ghost town is a place that's empty and silent. To ghost someone (newer, very common) means to suddenly stop replying to their messages. And if you look pale and ill, people say you look like you've seen a ghost.

These idioms are a lovely bridge between festive vocabulary and real conversation, which is the whole point of learning words in context rather than from a list.

The common mistakes, in one place

I correct the same few slips every October, so let me put them together.

First, costume, not "custom." A costume is clothing; a custom is a tradition. They look almost identical, which is exactly the trap. Second, dress up as, not "disguise as," for everyday Halloween talk. Third, Halloween is on a date, not "in." Fourth, remember the countable split: you can say "a costume" and "two costumes," but "candy" in American English is usually uncountable, so "a candy" sounds off, say "some candy" or "a sweet." If uncountable nouns trip you up in general, I've written a full guide to much vs many and countable nouns that pairs well with this.

How to actually make these words stick

A list of 45 words does nothing on its own, and honestly that's the mistake most learners make. Words stick when you use them. So here's a tiny plan for the next few weeks. Pick five words a day and say one real sentence with each, out loud, about your own life ("This year I'm dressing up as a vampire"). If you have kids, teach them "trick or treat," "thank you," and "happy Halloween," those three phrases carry the whole night. And watch one short Halloween clip without subtitles, then describe it using your new adjectives: was it spooky, creepy, or genuinely terrifying?

This is exactly how I learned Spanish when I moved to Peru. Not from a vocabulary list, but by grabbing a handful of words and forcing myself to use them that same day, in real conversations, even when I got them wrong. Halloween is a perfect, low-pressure excuse to do the same in English. If you'd like a warm, patient person to practise with who gently fixes the little slips as you go, that's exactly what I do.