variants
also fantasms
1
as in illusions
a conception or image created by the imagination and having no objective reality
frightened by the phantasms of his own making
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in apparitions
the soul of a dead person thought of especially as appearing to living people
believed that she'd seen the phantasm of her father on the anniversary of his death
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for phantasms
Noun
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Only hours into the conflict, an errant strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in southern Iran served as a gut-wrenching reminder of the cost of such illusions, and a testament to the grim truth that those who pay most dearly for the fog of war are almost always the innocent.—
Karim Sadjadpour,
The Atlantic,
4 Mar. 2026 -
Miuccia Prada, herself a billionaire, has no illusions that the runway is a space for political grandstanding.—
Rachel Tashjian,
CNN Money,
3 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
As the 14-year-old child of a poor family in 1858, Saint Bernadette experienced numerous apparitions of a young woman in a cave or grotto, seemingly the Virgin Mary, asking for a chapel to be built on the site.—
Chris Jones,
Chicago Tribune,
21 Feb. 2026
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The small museum, which opened last year, covers the creatures, apparitions and mysteries eluding prosaic explanation.—
Adam Kuehl,
New York Times,
19 Feb. 2026
Noun
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But there was more blank space to fill in on Issei’s end, with Season 2 swapping out fantasy sequences in Camille’s mind palace for Issei’s visions of black-and-white moonscapes to that effect.—
Alison Herman,
Variety,
11 Mar. 2026
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Disturbing visions and a shocking disappearance forces him to confront dark corners of his past.—
Alison Foreman,
IndieWire,
11 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
The spirits are all around here.—
Deborah Treisman,
New Yorker,
8 Mar. 2026
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The day event features a pop-up photo studio with celebrity photographer David Christopher Lee, along with brands across beauty, wellness, home and spirits — and puppies also available for adoption.—
Kirsten Chuba,
HollywoodReporter,
6 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Both have the talent to back up their dreams.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
10 Mar. 2026
-
Strong foundations can carry big dreams without unnecessary strain.—
Tarot.com,
The Orlando Sentinel,
9 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The Paramount+ series, which follows a group of ghosts stuck in purgatory inside their high school, uses its premise — characters tethered to different decades — as both a narrative engine and a musical one.—
Kennedy French,
Variety,
5 Mar. 2026
-
This may explain something about ghosts.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Mar. 2026
Noun
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From that premise, Gyllenhaal lighted on 1930s movie musicals as some of the glossiest and most charming fantasies that Hollywood has ever put out, but also as some of the most consciously artificial.—
Sarah Shachat,
IndieWire,
11 Mar. 2026
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In fact, his manuscript is also about his fantasies—in this case, fantasies about a young man who has a meaningful, intellectual, tender affair with his older mentor.—
Meg Walters,
Glamour,
9 Mar. 2026
Noun
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They were hidden in DART’s original photos, but UMD researchers Tony Farnham and Juan Rizos developed techniques to remove shadows and lighting effects.—
Bojan Stojkovski,
Interesting Engineering,
8 Mar. 2026
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Titled ClairObscur, it was dedicated to illuminating forms of character through the exploration of shadows, in part inspired by the dramatic tenebrism of Caravaggio.—
Luke Leitch,
Vogue,
7 Mar. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Phantasms.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/phantasms. Accessed 14 Mar. 2026.
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