variants
or phantasmagorical
as in hallucinatory
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Recent Examples of phantasmagoric
The action is punctuated by flash-frame collages that bring earlier and later observations together in a tumble of associations and hint at the drama’s mystical, phantasmagorical essence.
—
Richard Brody, New Yorker, 6 Feb. 2026
Today, the public district collection comprises some 35 large-scale murals, sculptures and installations, including the phantasmagoric exterior of its Museum Garage.
—Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 30 Nov. 2025
The Land of Spooks is a phantasmagorical blend of twisting gothic spires, impossible land formations, and disconcerting expressionist proportions.
—Kambole Campbell, IndieWire, 4 Nov. 2025
As the two keepers' accelerating madness batters their already uneasy relationship, the film becomes a phantasmagorical endurance test, with the two antagonistic leads hurling themselves against their tight confinement.
—Dennis Perkins, Entertainment Weekly, 31 Oct. 2025
Richard Brody, New Yorker, 6 Feb. 2026
Today, the public district collection comprises some 35 large-scale murals, sculptures and installations, including the phantasmagoric exterior of its Museum Garage.
—Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 30 Nov. 2025
The Land of Spooks is a phantasmagorical blend of twisting gothic spires, impossible land formations, and disconcerting expressionist proportions.
—Kambole Campbell, IndieWire, 4 Nov. 2025
As the two keepers' accelerating madness batters their already uneasy relationship, the film becomes a phantasmagorical endurance test, with the two antagonistic leads hurling themselves against their tight confinement.
—Dennis Perkins, Entertainment Weekly, 31 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for phantasmagoric
Adjective
-
Scenic designer Beowulf Boritt’s quaint tearoom seems both real and hallucinatory, with a melancholy rain pouring down in the background.—
Theater Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
17 Apr. 2026
-
Bret Easton Ellis’s hallucinatory satire of the 1990s fashion world imagines celebrity culture metastasizing into something far darker.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
15 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Floating quietly in the water while these massive creatures moved through the ocean around us felt surreal, the kind of travel moment that lodges permanently in memory.—
Susmita Baral,
Travel + Leisure,
14 Apr. 2026
-
In a surreal intertextual turn, Bratu’s Angela, played by Dorina Lazăr, appears in Jude’s contemporary Bucharest.—
Rebecca Mead,
New Yorker,
13 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Physicists treat the volume of the black hole as illusory, like a hologram.—
Shalma Wegsman,
Quanta Magazine,
30 Mar. 2026
-
If the recent leftward shift is sustained, or the earlier shift to the right was illusory, the effects on the politics of 2026 could be large, potentially putting control of Congress in the hands of Latino voters.—
Gary M. Segura,
The Conversation,
23 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
And so the super, super devoted fans really do know each other and really are jockeying with each other for position in a way that feels both real and imaginary.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
9 Apr. 2026
-
No borders and a thin blue line Viewing the Earth from space, White highlights, drives home that the borders that mark our maps are largely imaginary.—
Jackie Wattles,
CNN Money,
8 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Gemmill echoed the sentiment, emphasizing that the priority is maintaining the realism of the show, which centers on a fictional hospital in Pittsburgh.—
Tribune News Service,
Baltimore Sun,
17 Apr. 2026
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Then again, an especially good fictional song can come to feel more real than its story of origin.—
Mitch Therieau,
New Yorker,
17 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Beyond that, all apparent structures are merely phantasmal.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
27 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Investigators allege Gonzalez wrote checks to herself from HOA accounts over an extended period and concealed the thefts by creating fictitious invoices and false ledger entries.—
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten,
FOXNews.com,
8 Apr. 2026
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One requires election records to be maintained for 22 months, while the other prohibits procuring, casting or tabulating false, fictitious or fraudulent ballots.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
29 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
The treatment involves reengineering T cells—a type of immune defender—into chimeric antigen receptor T cells (hence, CAR-T) that can kill other cells of scientists’ choosing.—
Katherine J. Wu,
The Atlantic,
9 Apr. 2026
-
The German physician-scientist could produce the cells — chimeric antigen receptors, or CARs — at his institution, which was half the battle.—
Isabella Cueto,
STAT,
9 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Phantasmagoric.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/phantasmagoric. Accessed 20 Apr. 2026.
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