phantasmagoria

American  

[fan-taz-muh-gawr-ee-uh, -gohr-] / fænˌtæz məˈgɔr i ə, -ˈgoʊr- /

noun

1. a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination.

2. a changing scene made up of many elements.

3. an optical illusion produced by a magic lantern or the like in which figures increase or diminish in size, pass into each other, dissolve, etc.

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phantasmagoria British  

/ ˌfæntæzməˈɡɒrɪk, ˌfæntæzməˈɡɔːrɪə, fænˈtæzməɡərɪ /

noun

1. psychol a shifting medley of real or imagined figures, as in a dream

2. films a sequence of pictures made to vary in size rapidly while remaining in focus

3. rare a shifting scene composed of different elements

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Other Word Forms

• phantasmagorial
  adjective
• phantasmagorian
  adjective
• phantasmagoric
  adjective
• phantasmagorically
  adverb
• phantasmagorist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of phantasmagoria

1795–1805; < French fantasmagorie, compound based on fantasme phantasm; second element perhaps representing Greek agorá assembly, gathering; see -ia

Explanation

Dream-like visions can be called a phantasmagoria. If you've ever had a very high fever, you might have experienced seeing a phantasmagoria of strange images in your half-awake, feverish state. The strange, hallucinatory images you might see in a dream are a phantasmagoria. Even when you're awake, if you see odd or fantastic things — either real or imagined — they're a phantasmagoria. The word was invented by a French dramatist in 1801, who used the Greek word for "image," phantasma to make the French word phantasmagorie. The word referred to a "magic lantern" show, which in the 1800s was a popular display of projected images.

Example Sentences

If they believe the phantasmagoria, it’s more likely you will, too.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 21, 2026

Perhaps evoking an oft-quoted Didion quote: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live. We live entirely by the impression of a narrative line upon disparate images, the shifting phantasmagoria, which is our actual experience.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 28, 2026

Instead, the absence of information leaves a phantasmagoria inside us, akin to what my colleague, the psychoanalyst Andrea Bleichmar has described, an ever-shifting torment of shadowy images and fantasies.

From Slate • Jun. 4, 2023

Somewhere in the middle of the swirling phantasmagoria that is the play “On Set With Theda Bara,” indeed one will.

From New York Times • Feb. 5, 2023

If we could only juxtapose one eyeball of this sanctified woman and a television tube, both being roughly of the same shape and design, what a phantasmagoria of exploding electrodes would occur.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole