To ghost-write is to be paid to write a book, a speech, or a story that will go out under someone else’s name. The famous name is on the cover; the person who actually wrote the sentences stays in the background, like a ghost — there, but not seen. The person whose job this is is a ghostwriter. Politicians, film stars, and other busy people often use one for a life story. It is a real job, not magic, though some readers feel tricked when they find out. Ghost-write is the verb: someone ghost-wrote the book; a book can be ghost-written. The “ghost” here is not a dead spirit. It only means the real writer is invisible to the public. The work can be quite formal (a president’s memoir) or quite light (a celebrity cookbook); the hiding of the writer is what the word names.