phan·tasm

(făn′tăz′əm)

1. Something apparently seen but having no physical reality; a phantom or an apparition. Also called phantasma.

2. An illusory mental image. Also called phantasma.

3. In Platonic philosophy, objective reality as perceived and distorted by the five senses.

[Middle English fantasme, from Old French, from Latin phantasma, from Greek, from phantazein, to make visible, from phantos, visible, from phainein, to show; see bhā- in Indo-European roots.]

phan·tas′mal (făn-tăz′məl), phan·tas′mic (-tăz′mĭk) adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

phantasm

(ˈfæntæzəm)

1. a phantom

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

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

[C13: from Old French fantasme, from Latin phantasma, from Greek; related to Greek phantazein to cause to be seen, from phainein to show]

phanˈtasmal, phantasmalian, phanˈtasmic, phanˈtasmical adj

phanˈtasmally, phanˈtasmically adv

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

phan•tasm

(ˈfæn tæz əm)

n.

1. an apparition or specter.

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.

[1175–1225; Middle English fantesme < Old French < Latin phantasma < Greek phántasma image, vision]

phan•tas′mal, phan•tas′mic, phan•tas′mi•cal, adj.

phantasm

a vision or other perception of something that has no physical or objective reality, as a ghost or other supernatural apparition. Also phantasma. See also images; philosophy.

phantasm

noun

1. A supernatural being, such as a ghost:

apparition, bogey, bogeyman, bogle, eidolon, ghost, phantasma, phantom, revenant, shade, shadow, specter, spirit, visitant, wraith.

Informal: spook.

Regional: haunt.

2. An illusory mental image:

daydream, dream, fancy, fantasy, fiction, figment, illusion, phantasma, reverie, vision.

3. An erroneous perception of reality:

delusion, hallucination, ignis fatuus, illusion, mirage, phantasma, will-o'-the-wisp.

Translations

fantasme

phantasm

[ˈfæntæzəm] N → fantasma m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

phantasm

, phantasma

n pl <phantasmata> → Phantasma nt

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

phan·tasm

n. fantasma, ilusión óptica, aparición.

English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

A personal, human feeling for a brief moment got the better of the artificial phantasm of life he had served so long.

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Hereafter, perhaps, some intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm to the common-place - some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my own, which will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects.

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I felt that thus only should I look upon it -- such was the character of phantasm which it wore.

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I seemed to see a ghostly, indistinct figure sitting in a whirling mass of black and brass for a moment--a figure so transparent that the bench behind with its sheets of drawings was absolutely distinct; but this phantasm vanished as I rubbed my eyes.

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In this unnerved--in this pitiable condition--I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR."

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"No," he answered, "I've never been used to nothing but common victual, and I can't eat that." Experience had bred no fancies in him that could raise the phantasm of appetite.

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It seemed to each of them that the life he led himself was the only real life, and the life led by his friend was a mere phantasm. Oblonsky could not restrain a slight mocking smile at the sight of Levin.

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His brief glimpse into the street had given him a forcible impression of the manner in which the world kept itself cheerful and prosperous, by social pleasures and an intercourse of business, while he, in seclusion, was pursuing an object that might possibly be a phantasm, by a method which most people would call madness.

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The painted phantasm Fashion rises to cast a species of derision on what we say.

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In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted, it may well be supposed that no ordinary appearance could have excited such sensation.

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Whenever I dozed I dreamt of horrible phantasms, of the death of the curate, or of sump- tuous dinners; but, asleep or awake, I felt a keen pain that urged me to drink again and again.

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But in spite of the brilliant sunlight and the green fans of the trees waving in the soothing sea-breeze, the world was a confusion, blurred with drifting black and red phantasms, until I was out of earshot of the house in the chequered wall.

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Noun	1.	phantasm - a ghostly appearing figure; "we were unprepared for the apparition that confronted us" apparition, fantasm, phantasma, phantom, spectre, specter disembodied spirit, spirit - any incorporeal supernatural being that can become visible (or audible) to human beings Flying Dutchman - the captain of a phantom ship (the Flying Dutchman) who was condemned to sail against the wind until Judgment Day
	2.	phantasm - something existing in perception only; "a ghostly apparition at midnight" fantasm, phantasma, phantom, shadow, apparition flying saucer, UFO, unidentified flying object - an (apparently) flying object whose nature is unknown; especially those considered to have extraterrestrial origins Flying Dutchman - a phantom ship that is said to appear in storms near the Cape of Good Hope ghost, specter, wraith, spectre, spook, shade - a mental representation of some haunting experience; "he looked like he had seen a ghost"; "it aroused specters from his past" illusion, semblance - an erroneous mental representation