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; see -ia

Explanation

Dream-like visions can be called a phantasmagoria. If you've ever had a very high fever, you might have experienced seeing a phantasmagoria of strange images in your half-awake, feverish state. The strange, hallucinatory images you might see in a dream are a phantasmagoria. Even when you're awake, if you see odd or fantastic things — either real or imagined — they're a phantasmagoria. The word was invented by a French dramatist in 1801, who used the Greek word for "image," phantasma to make the French word phantasmagorie. The word referred to a "magic lantern" show, which in the 1800s was a popular display of projected images.

Example Sentences

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

From Los Angeles Times • May 20, 2025

For me, that phantasmagoria included years of nightmares that jolted me awake.

From Slate • Jun. 4, 2023

Somewhere in the middle of the swirling phantasmagoria that is the play “On Set With Theda Bara,” indeed one will.

From New York Times • Feb. 5, 2023

Sen. William Preston, a South Carolina Whig, called the statue “the most horrid phantasmagoria I have ever beheld.”

From Washington Post • Jan. 22, 2023

Here the glacier spills abruptly over the edge of a high plateau, dropping seaward through a gap between two mountains in a phantasmagoria of shattered ice.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer