as in imaginary
not real and existing only in the imagination
had spent a restless night during which he was visited by a series of phantasmic figures
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Recent Examples of phantasmic
Standing to the right, the viewer perceives this phantasmic figure underneath their reflection, a disturbing Other, a double.
—
James Meyer, Artforum, 1 Jan. 2026
James Meyer, Artforum, 1 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for phantasmic
Adjective
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Under the noonday sun while fishing, or stealing light from the full moon, the point of his pencil traced the imaginary movements of the washers, threads, coil springs, cylinders, bolts, and screws that had long enriched the workings of his mind.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
12 Jan. 2026
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Torgashev dropped an imaginary microphone for his ending pose, then doubled over before dropping to a knee as the crowd rose to its feet.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
11 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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The veil seamlessly transitions into sculptural braids, and the almost mythical look was topped off with perfectly clear glass tips over her natural nails.—
Marci Robin,
Allure,
12 Jan. 2026
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The name Siren's Curse comes from the mythical sirens who reside in Lake Erie and lure sailors with their singing.—
Chad Murphy,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
12 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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As the voice of Rumi, Ejae performed the lead vocals of all the songs for HUNTR/X, the movie's fictional k-pop girl group that moonlights as demon hunters who protect the world from soul-sucking monsters.—
Nick Romano,
Entertainment Weekly,
12 Jan. 2026
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In the fictional story of the Shakespeare family, their family tragedy leads Shakespeare to write Hamlet.—
Yamillah Hurtado,
PEOPLE,
12 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Anyone who’s survived to 2026 knows the upper class’ fictitious fantasies still carry real, wretched consequences for the rest of us, but Season 4 plays out those ongoing scenarios to the nth degree, while condensing them into an appreciable narrative arc.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
11 Jan. 2026
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The series, which premiered on Netflix at the end of 2024, tells the story of the Buendía family over multiple generations and is set in the fictitious town of Macondo, Colombia, which the family founded.—
Kevin Jacobsen,
Entertainment Weekly,
2 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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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
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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
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Taken together, the books on this list show narrators real and imagined grappling with some of life’s greatest challenges, and nevertheless surviving—as timely and valuable a message as readers can ask for.—
Lucy Feldman,
Time,
9 Dec. 2025
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Prompted by Einstein, the noncompliant witnesses in the 1950s reshaped the public discussion, refocusing the conversation on the importance of freedom of expression rather than the fears of imagined communist infiltration.—
Jodie Childers,
The Conversation,
20 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Phantasmic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/phantasmic. Accessed 15 Jan. 2026.
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