phantasmal

American  

[fan-taz-muhl] / fænˈtæz məl /

Also phantasmic,

adjective

1. pertaining to or of the nature of a phantasm; unreal; illusory; spectral.

   phantasmal creatures of nightmare.

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Other Word Forms

• phantasmality
  noun
• phantasmally
  adverb
• phantasmatically
  adverb
• phantasmically
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of phantasmal

First recorded in 1805–15; phantasm + -al ¹

Example Sentences

Species known as Anthony's poison arrow frog and the Phantasmal poison frog are among those that secrete the toxin onto their skin.

From BBC • Feb. 15, 2026

Phantasmal palaces of shrieking lightning, with arches of star-shells, appear and vanish amid forests of ghastly gleams.

From Light by Wray, Fitzwater

Phantasmal, blanched by the dark, his flowers dreamed on the lawn.

From The Creators A Comedy by Sinclair, May

In the white-walled room Where the white bed waits Stand banks of meaningless flowers; In the rain-swept street Are a ghost-like row of cabs; And along the corridor-dusk Phantasmal feet repass.

From Open Water by Stringer, Arthur

Now coasts with capes and ribboned beaches Set silent 'neath the canopy sapphirine, And estuaries and river reaches Phantasmal silver in the night's soft shine.

From The Three Hills And other Poems by Baudelaire, Charles