[syn: apparition, phantom, phantasm, phantasma, fantasm, shadow]
ADJECTIVE (1)
1. something apparently sensed but having no physical reality;
- Example: "seemed to hear faint phantom bells"
- Example: "the amputee's illusion of a phantom limb"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Phantom \Phan"tom\, n. [OE. fantome, fantosme, fantesme, OF.
fant[^o]me, fr. L. phantasma, Gr. fa`ntasma, fr. fai`nein to
show. See Fancy, and cf. Pha["e]ton, Phantasm,
Phase.]
That which has only an apparent existence; an apparition; a
specter; a phantasm; a sprite; an airy spirit; an ideal
image.
[1913 Webster]
Strange phantoms rising as the mists arise. --Pope.
[1913 Webster]
She was a phantom of delight. --Wordsworth.
[1913 Webster]
Phantom ship. See Flying Dutchman, under Flying.
Phantom tumor (Med.), a swelling, especially of the
abdomen, due to muscular spasm, accumulation of flatus,
etc., simulating an actual tumor in appearance, but
disappearing upon the administration of an an[ae]sthetic.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Phantom \Phan"tom\, a.
Being, or of the nature of, a phantom.
Phantom isles are floating in the skies. --B. Taylor.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
phantom
adj 1: something apparently sensed but having no physical
reality; "seemed to hear faint phantom bells"; "the
amputee's illusion of a phantom limb"
n 1: a ghostly appearing figure; "we were unprepared for the
apparition that confronted us" [syn: apparition,
phantom, phantasm, phantasma, fantasm, specter,
spectre]
2: something existing in perception only; "a ghostly apparition
at midnight" [syn: apparition, phantom, phantasm,
phantasma, fantasm, shadow]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
200 Moby Thesaurus words for "phantom":
Barmecidal, Barmecide, Dracula, Frankenstein, Masan, Wolf-man, air,
airy, airy nothing, apparent, apparition, apparitional, appearance,
asomatous, astral, astral spirit, autistic, banshee, bodiless,
bogey, bogeyman, brainchild, bubble, bugaboo, bugbear, chimaera,
chimera, chimeric, control, decarnate, decarnated, deceptive,
delirium, delusion, delusional, delusionary, delusive, delusory,
departed spirit, dereistic, discarnate, disembodied,
disembodied spirit, dreamlike, dreamy, duppy, dybbuk, ectoplasmic,
eidolon, erroneous, ether, ethereal, etheric, extramundane,
fallacious, false, false image, fancy, fantasque, fantastic,
fantasy, fee-faw-fum, fiction, figment, figure, form, frightener,
ghost, ghostish, ghostlike, ghostly, ghosty, ghoul, grateful dead,
guide, hallucination, hant, haunt, hobgoblin, holy terror, horror,
idle fancy, idolum, illusion, illusional, illusionary, illusive,
illusory, image, imagery, imaginary, imagination, imagining,
immaterial, immateriality, impalpable, imponderable, incorporate,
incorporeal, incorporeal being, incorporeity, incubus,
insubstantial, insubstantial image, intangible, invention, larva,
lemures, maggot, make-believe, manes, materialization, mirage,
misleading, mist, monster, myth, nightmare, nonmaterial,
nonphysical, occult, ogre, ogress, oni, ostensible, otherworldly,
phantasm, phantasma, phantasmagoria, phantasmagoric, phantasmal,
phantasmic, phantomic, phantomlike, phasm, phenomenon, poltergeist,
presence, psychic, revenant, romance, scarebabe, scarecrow, scarer,
seeming, self-deceptive, self-deluding, shade, shadow, shadowy,
shape, shrouded spirit, sick fancy, smoke, specious, specter,
specterlike, spectral, spectral ghost, spectrum, spirit, spiritual,
spook, sprite, succubus, supernatural, supposititious, terror,
theophany, thick-coming fancies, thin air, transmundane, trip,
unactual, unearthly, unembodied, unextended, unfleshly, unfounded,
unphysical, unreal, unsubstantial, unsubstantiality, unworldly,
vampire, vapor, vision, visionary, waking dream, walking dead man,
wandering soul, werewolf, whim, whimsy, wildest dream,
wildest dreams, wraith, wraithlike, wraithy, zombie