phantasma
- noun
- /fænˈtæzmə/
- Literature
- The film's eerie atmosphere created an unsettling phantasma that left the audience questioning what was real.
Examples
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Phantasia refers to a simple memory image generated by the mind's internal vision, whereas phantasma designates the product of the mind's activity in arranging and rearranging into a coherent whole the disparate images stored in memory.
Academic text (2007) -
The multiple portraits of Christ produced in time are simply a matter of human conjecture; the depiction of the incarnate face is no more than a phantasma.
Academic text (2007) -
A new god, then, is either one or the other of two things: a stone or a phantasma.
Academic text (2007) -
The old mansion was said to be haunted by a phantasma that appeared to visitors late at night.
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At last, she realized that her fears were just a phantasma of her imagination, not real threats.
Synonyms
A false experience in which you see or hear something not there
A ghost or spirit that people think they see
A ghost that people say appears and frightens them at night
A magic trick that makes something look impossible
A ghost that people see suddenly
A thing that seems real but is only in the mind, like a ghost
Seeing things that are not really there because the brain sends wrong signals
A spirit without a body that appears to people or stays near places
A ghost that appears to people
A vivid image or sound that feels real but you know is not real
Antonyms
How Real
- Literature
- Literature
Surface Forms
Etymology
Phantasma comes from an old Greek word that means 'image' or 'appearance', and you can see the same root in the English words phantom and fantasy; so a phantasma is a ghostly image or something that feels unreal.