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phantasmal

adjective

Definition of phantasmalnext
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

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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 The Mellotron occupies a phantasmal space in our pop culture consciousness. — Sam Goldner, Pitchfork, 19 July 2026 Beyond that, all apparent structures are merely phantasmal. — Big Think, 27 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for phantasmal
  1. imaginary
  2. fictional
  3. mythical
  4. fictitious
  5. imaginal
  6. imagined
Adjective
  • Most writers don’t have those constraints, real or imaginary.
    — Louis Menand, New Yorker, 21 Sep. 2026
  • Eleven gullible idiots were talked into acquitting because of an imaginary female ailment.
    — Voice of the People, New York Daily News, 20 Sep. 2026
Definition of imaginary
Adjective
  • The name traces back to Mary Jane, a fictional character in Richard Felton Outcault’s Buster Brown comic strip which debuted in 1902, who often appeared wearing the now iconic shoe style.
    — Jessica Chapel, Condé Nast Traveler, 15 Sep. 2026
  • But while the series is set in a fictional New England island community, many of its recognizable sights can be found just an hour north of Boston in Rockport, Massachusetts.
    — Aaron Parseghian, CBS News, 15 Sep. 2026
Definition of fictional
Adjective
  • Streep is voicing Aslan, the mythical lion who creates the mystical world of Narnia.
    — Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 17 Sep. 2026
  • Although the story of Odysseus binding himself to the mast to resist the Sirens’ song may belong to the mythical imagination, plenty of desperate souls have gone to heroic lengths to obstruct their wayward desires.
    — Meghan O’Gieblyn, New Yorker, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of mythical
Adjective
  • There have been 28 years between the two films, but in the narrative of the fictitious Owens sisters, only about 10 years should have passed.
    — Danielle Pergament, Allure, 14 Sep. 2026
  • Inspectors have found hundreds of allegedly fictitious facilities, while at least 833 kitchens have been shut down for failing to meet hygiene and sanitation standards.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 5 Sep. 2026
Definition of fictitious
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
Definition of imaginal
Adjective
  • The production was full of nostalgia for an imagined past when the small screen was more ascendant and apolitical, with tributes to Charlie’s Angels and Dolly Parton shirking any embrace of the form’s progressive history.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 15 Sep. 2026
  • The summer before, so many Black men and Black children and Black women had been murdered for the most meager of real or imagined offenses.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of imagined

Browse Nearby Words

phantasmagoric
phantasmal
phantasmic
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Phantasmal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/phantasmal. Accessed 22 Sep. 2026.

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