ghost bullet

9.9

A bullet that leaves almost no sign to show where it came from

noun

Specialized

: bala fantasma

The forensics team struggled to recover any evidence of the ghost bullet used in the crime.

Examples

Rumors spread about a ghost bullet capable of causing deadly wounds without leaving a trace.
The detective found no ghost bullet at the crime scene.
He claimed he had invented a ghost bullet that no one could ever track back to him.
Many ghost bullets are used in covert operations.
The forensics team struggled to recover any evidence of the ghost bullet used in the crime.
Rumors spread about a ghost bullet capable of causing deadly wounds without leaving a trace.
He claimed he had invented a ghost bullet that no one could ever track back to him.

Synonyms

bullet

vsghost bullet

∞ 2.2

A small metal object fired from a gun

is hard to detect or trace, leaving little or no ballistic evidence

Antonyms

tracer bullet

Specialized

1 7.0

A bullet that leaves a bright trail so you can see its path

Surface Forms

ghost bullet singular

ghost bullets plural

Morphology

ghost + bullet

The meaning is directly built from 'ghost' (barely perceptible/invisible) modifying 'bullet' (a projectile), yielding an interpretable sense of a bullet that is hard to detect or trace. This modifier+noun composition is a transparent, cross-linguistically common pattern (e.g., 'ghost town/ship'), so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely infer the intended meaning despite its specialized forensic usage.

Etymology

The term ghost bullet mixes ghost, meaning something unseen, with bullet. One popular image is a shot that seems to vanish and leave no marks, so the phrase means 'hard to find' or 'leaves no trace'.