afterimage

[af-ter-im-ij, ahf-]

noun

Psychology.

1. a visual image or other sense impression that persists after the stimulus that caused it is no longer operative.

afterimage

/ ˈɑːftərˌɪmɪdʒ /

noun

1. Also called: aftersensation.  photogene. a sustained or renewed sensation, esp visual, after the original stimulus has ceased

Word History and Origins

Origin of afterimage¹

1875–80; translation of German Nachbild; after, image

Example Sentences

With an orange and yellow face, teal-ringed eyes and oversize lips, it could be the glowing afterimage of someone who’s looked in the mirror a moment too long.

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Bodies — theirs and others — fill in the space, but their afterimage reverberates.

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Once, when I was a teenager, I saw a fireball that was so bright that it left an afterimage on my eye.

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Her scores can evoke the glint and glare of staring at the sun — its beauty, its harshness, its burning afterimage — but also the slowly dizzying churn of the depths of the sea.

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When she tilted her head, she seemed to break into three different people again...misty afterimages blurring together, like a photograph of someone moving too fast to capture.

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Related Words

• appearance 
• eye 
• perception 
• view 
• vision