phantasmic

adjective

Definition of phantasmicnext
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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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 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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for phantasmic
  1. imaginary
  2. mythical
  3. fictional
  4. fictitious
  5. imaginal
  6. imagined
Adjective
  • The wealth tax opponents have applied the age-old technique of mustering superficially plausible, but largely imaginary, consequences of passage.
    — Business Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 16 Oct. 2026
  • The genre gave him considerably more freedom to invent architectural settings, mixing classical ruins, waterways, and figures into elaborate imaginary landscapes.
    — Daniel Cassady, ARTnews.com, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of imaginary
Adjective
  • Basquiat himself was the star of Downtown 81, playing a mythic version of himself.
    — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 21 Oct. 2026
  • In their utopian reconstruction of a mythic past, the Agrarians’ polemics failed to mention the South’s legacies of slavery and rebellion.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of mythical
Adjective
  • The novel was also partly epistolary, including segments of fictional court transcripts and news coverage created by King (who enjoyed mimicking different writing styles).
    — ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 21 Oct. 2026
  • The film—based on the 2014 play Switzerland by Joanna Murray-Smith—sets a fictional scene in the final chapter of Highsmith’s life.
    — Alex Jhamb Burns, Vogue, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of fictional
Adjective
  • This Lincolnian view of the war—that the United States was perpetual and that the Confederate States of America was a fictitious, farcical nation—has led to various historical interpretations ever since, among historians and laypeople alike.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 19 Oct. 2026
  • The series will be set in a fictitious Barneys in Beverly Hills, not New York, and the real founding family of the retailer, the Pressman family, has no involvement, the spokesperson said.
    — Jean E. Palmieri, Footwear News, 14 Oct. 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 second scenario in the speculative design research is built around an imagined service called Paren’t, which proposes to preserve a parent’s AI-powered postmortem presence for their child.
    — Lissa Soep, Vox, 17 Oct. 2026
  • Drawn to the tactile and familiar qualities of paper, Teo uses playful forms and visual metaphors to transform everyday subjects and construct whimsical, imagined worlds.
    — New York Times Games, New York Times, 4 Oct. 2026
Definition of imagined

Browse Nearby Words

phantasmal
phantasmic
phantasms
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Phantasmic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/phantasmic. Accessed 25 Oct. 2026.

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