phantasmal
1
9.9
- adjective
- /fænˈtæzməl/
- Literature
:
fantasmal
- The phantasmal figures danced in the moonlight, creating an eerie atmosphere in the forest.
Examples
-
He slept poorly, though, his dreams clouded by phantasmal memories of his previous debauched night and the vague recollection of his plea to dark gods that could not possibly exist.
Fiction book (1996) -
I say figurehead because he seemed personally almost nonexistent, phantasmal.
Fiction book (2000) -
The conflicts are phantasmal, but there is evidence of real physical suffering.
Blog text (13) -
This is this phantasmal world of Quanta is our world.
-
On the other hand, if no phantasmal beast had dragged Harriet to its den inside, what could be the point of looking for her there?
Fiction book (2001) -
Icicles hung from the overhangs of buildings, from the statues and the trees that still remained, giving the city the phantasmal impression of a nightmare.
Fiction book (1994) -
As the vessel slid through "a queer, pale mist," he wrote, "we seemed to be ploughing aimlessly through the phantasmal sand-dunes."
Academic text (2013) -
At the heart of this Carpathian darkness lies a phantasmal sense of the images on the screen as shadows of things gone, shimmerings left in the wake of the vanishing, traces of the world's frailty.
Academic text (1993) -
Near a graveyard of the drowned, marking their memory in the wind-blown reedy dunes, the wife awaits by the sea, a shimmering phantasmal sea that brings not her husband but Nosferatu and his coffins.
Academic text (1993) -
She described a phantasmal landscape where nothing seemed quite real, as if a dream had taken shape.
Synonyms
40
4.7
Having a pale, quiet look that feels scary
28
4.2
Not real, like something from a dream
28
7.0
Appearing like a ghost
21
8.0
Very strange and like something made up in dreams or stories
15
8.0
Seeming to exist without a body, like a voice or spirit
12
7.0
Seeming to be real but not really there
9
7.7
Very strange and not like anything from this world
5
7.5
Looking like a ghost and causing fear
1
6.5
Having a pale, thin, and quiet appearance that feels spooky
1
9.9
Like a faint ghostly mist or glow
1
9.8
Light and delicate with a feeling of something not physical
1
9.9
Something that looks strange and like a vivid dream
1
9.9
Looks like a strange dream with changing images
1
9.9
Having the look or feel of a ghost
1
9.9
Having a thin, ghostlike appearance
1
9.4
Appearing real when it is not
Appears like a ghost, not solid or easy to see
Having a quality like a dream or a ghost that seems unreal
Being unreal and like a dream
Antonyms
How Ghostly
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word phantasmal comes from an old Greek word phantasm meaning 'ghost' or 'image'. It is like phantom, so it describes something that looks unreal or ghostly.