Objective To explore the high⁃resolution CT (HRCT) signs of pulmonary ground⁃glass nodule (GGN) and their values for evaluating malignant invasion degree of tumor. Methods The clinical data of 110 GGN patients were retrospectively analyzed, and all of the patients underwent HRCT examination. According to pathological results, patients were divided into benign group (n=36) or malignant group (n=74), and then according to malignant invasion degree, the malignant group was further assigned to adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) group (n=24), microinvasive adenocarcinoma (MIA) group (n=30), or invasive adenocarcinoma (IAC) group (n=20). Taking the results of pathological examination as the golden standard, the efficiency of HRCT for distinguishing benign or malignant GGN was analyzed; moreover, HRCT signs were compared between GGN patients with different malignant invasion degree, and evaluation values of solid component and lesion size on malignant invasion degree of GGN patients were analyzed. Results The accuracy, specificity, sensitivity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value of HRCT for distinguishing benign or malignant GGN were 95.45% (105/110), 97.22% (35/36), 94.59% (70/74), 89.74% (35/39), and 98.59% (70/71), respectively, and Kappa value of it with the pathological results was 0.899. There were statistically significant differences in lesion morphology, lobulation sign, spicule sign, vessel convergence sign, pleural indentation sign, vocule sign, and air bronchogram sign between GGN patients with different malignant invasion degrees (P<0.05), therein the IAC group exhibited higher proportions of irregular lesion morphology, lobulation sign, spicule sign, vessel convergence sign, pleural indentation sign, vocule sign, and air bronchogram sign as compared with the MIA and AIS groups (P<0.05), and the solid components, lesion sizes were decreased successively in the IAC, MIA, and AIS groups (P<0.05). The results of receiver operating characteristic curve indicated that area under the curve of solid component and lesion size for jointly evaluating malignant invasion degree of tumor in GGN patients was 0.937, which was higher than that of the two as above for single evaluation (P<0.05). Conclusion HRCT in the differential diagnosis of benign or malignant GGN exerts favorable efficiency. Combing HRCT solid component and lesion size is helpful to evaluate malignant invasion degree of GGN.