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; -ia

Example Sentences

The 90-minute opera is basically a phantasmagoria of how Schoenberg got here.

From Los Angeles Times • May 20, 2025

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

There is something more than the muffled phantasmagoria of urban life going on here.

From Washington Post • Jan. 26, 2023

From there, the "letter" takes readers through a phantasmagoria of wonders, describing our posthuman progeny as living in "surpassing bliss and delight."

From Salon • Nov. 20, 2022

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