afterimage

American  

[af-ter-im-ij, ahf-] / ˈæf tərˌɪm ɪdʒ, ˈɑf- /

noun

Psychology.

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

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afterimage British  

/ ˈɑːftərˌɪmɪdʒ /

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of afterimage

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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

afterimage

Czernowitz was by then a Habsburg afterimage: Jews, Germans, Romanians, Ukrainians and Poles, brushing past one another in schools, markets and cafes, their lives conducted in competing alphabets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2025

By night’s end, after the applause faded, one could almost feel the afterimage settling into New York’s political memory.

From Slate ● Jun. 30, 2025

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

From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2024

NO: an afterimage burned on their retinas, the glow seared forever in their memory.

From "Tradition" by Brendan Kiely

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Related Words

• appearance
• eye
• perception
• view
• vision

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