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

You’ll feel loss, but the afterimage of this singular woman’s belief in finding light is what will burn.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

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.

Read more on Scientific American

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.

Read more on New York Times

Related Words

• appearance 
• eye 
• perception 
• view 
• vision