phantasm

American  

[fan-taz-uhm] / ˈfæn tæz əm /

Sometimes fantasm

noun

1. an apparition or specter.

   Synonyms:

   vision, ghost

2. a creation of the imagination or fancy; fantasy.

3. a mental image or representation of a real object.

4. an illusory likeness of something.

   Synonyms:

   illusion, hallucination

---

phantasm British  

/ ˈfæntæzəm /

noun

1. a phantom

2. an illusory perception of an object, person, etc

3. (in the philosophy of Plato) objective reality as distorted by perception

---

Related Words

See apparition.

Other Word Forms

• phantasmal adjective
• phantasmally adverb

Etymology

Origin of phantasm

First recorded in 1175–1225; from Latin phantasma, from Greek phántasma “image, vision” (akin to phantázein “to bring before the mind”); replacing Middle English fantesme, from Old French, from Latin as above

Example Sentences

David Hume, the 18th Century philosopher, described it as “the phantasm of the senses.”

From Salon • Nov. 16, 2024

A hellish phantasm of a doe-human hybrid that will definitely stalk and kill you in a dream tonight?

From The Guardian • Aug. 12, 2019

“It’s like a gargoyle with weird green eyes that pulls on my hair or nibbles my ear”—he jerked his head away and smiled reprovingly at the phantasm.

From The New Yorker • Mar. 11, 2019

The equine phantasm holds a sword in one hand while he dangles what looks like a lobster over the face of the sleeping man.

From Washington Post • Mar. 27, 2017

She wasn’t Sarai here, but this absurd tame phantasm of her mother.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor