as in imaginary
not real and existing only in the imagination
phantasmal fears that have prevented her from living a normal life
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of phantasmal
Beyond that, all apparent structures are merely phantasmal.
—
Big Think, 27 Oct. 2025
Big Think, 27 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for phantasmal
Adjective
-
Casa Maruka Cleverly channeling an old-fashioned casa de comidas complete with an imaginary granny (Maruka) at the stove and classic Spanish dishes tweaked for modern tastes, Alberto Serrano and Maria José Calabria continue to preside over what may be Palma’s most consistently enjoyable restaurant.—
Paul Richardson,
Condé Nast Traveler,
25 Feb. 2026
-
Locate the two uppermost stars — Merak and Dubhe — and draw an imaginary line from the former through the latter and out into space.—
Anthony Wood,
Space.com,
17 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
German defense technology startup SWARM Biotactics has deployed programmable cyborg insect swarms for paying NATO customers, including German military forces, moving a seemingly fictional concept from experiments to operational field use.—
Kaif Shaikh,
Interesting Engineering,
27 Feb. 2026
-
On Friday, Bella Hadid stepped out in Milan to promote her new collaboration with Miss Sixty, rocking blunt platinum bangs reminiscent of the fictional pop star.—
Hannah Malach,
InStyle,
27 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
To be sung, and now written, about was to achieve a kind of mythic divinity.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
27 Feb. 2026
-
The calm shatters when a local boy is found drowned near the mythical island of Svärtan.—
Max Goldbart,
Deadline,
26 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Who wants to sit through a fictitious novelist’s clumsy drafts?—
Theater Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
14 Feb. 2026
-
The committee requested that information after a congressional watchdog found last December that the enhanced premium tax credits were vulnerable to fraud, with auditors successfully obtaining subsidized coverage for multiple ‘fictitious’ applicants.—
Sophie Brams,
The Hill,
10 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Peter [Merry] likes to use is that, when a caterpillar is becoming a butterfly, new ‘imaginal cells’ emerge.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
7 Aug. 2025
-
With one technique, for example—called imaginal exposure—you might be asked to visualize the process of going to the airport, boarding the plane, and experiencing a bad bout of turbulence.—
Angela Haupt,
TIME,
10 May 2024
Adjective
-
Both are beatless, widescreen, and almost formless, little soundtracks to an imagined world in bloom.—
Alex Robert Ross,
Pitchfork,
13 Feb. 2026
-
They’d been drawn by the pay, but also by a sense of altruism and imagined kinship.—
Ava Kofman,
New Yorker,
9 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Phantasmal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/phantasmal. Accessed 6 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
