as in imaginary
not real and existing only in the imagination
the company claimed that the only hazards involving its product were the phantom dangers created by consumer groups
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in ghost
the soul of a dead person thought of especially as appearing to living people
Halloween is supposed to be a time when phantoms return to walk among us
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of phantom
Brian Truitt, USA Today, 1 Feb. 2026
The floating objects, trance communications, phantom touches, miraculous healings, and poltergeist writings that followed in the five decades after Mona’s death were attributed to her and a pantheon of other notable spirits, including Black Elk.
—Shannon Taggart, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2026
Literary Hub, 10 Nov. 2025
There has been a phantom haunting this Matlock season.
—Noel Murray, Vulture, 31 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for phantom
Adjective
Reeves turns in a heartbreaking performance, Tatum is at the height of his talents and Philip Ettinger is also great as the assailant who becomes a phantom-like figure in the child's mind.
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 1 Feb. 2026
The floating objects, trance communications, phantom touches, miraculous healings, and poltergeist writings that followed in the five decades after Mona’s death were attributed to her and a pantheon of other notable spirits, including Black Elk.
—Shannon Taggart, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2026
Noun
Gives himself entirely to the race, shoots like a phantom up through the opening and then stands panting in the garret, completely motionless, while his eyes become accustomed to the change of light.
—Literary Hub, 10 Nov. 2025
There has been a phantom haunting this Matlock season.
—Noel Murray, Vulture, 31 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for phantom
Recent Examples of Synonyms for phantom
Adjective
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Your brain treats heartbreak like a physical injury That crushing feeling in your chest isn’t imaginary.—
Kyra Dahring,
CNN Money,
14 Feb. 2026
-
Lugers tilt to an imaginary track.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
14 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
In the book, the trope is introduced when Lockwood sleeps in Catherine’s childhood bed and is visited by her girl-ghost wandering the moors, demanding to be let in.—
Natasha O'Neill,
Vanity Fair,
13 Feb. 2026
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The show’s greatest strength was never just the jump scares or the hidden ghosts tucked into background shots.—
Hanna Wickes,
Kansas City Star,
13 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Comulate also invented a fictitious insurance agent named Jordan Bates, who purported to work for PBC and who interacted with Applied Systems salespeople through email (with a Phoenix Benefits email domain) to create a customer account on Applied’s Epic.—
John Hyatt,
Forbes.com,
30 Jan. 2026
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In a comparable case in the United States in 2023, a federal judge imposed $5,000 fines on two lawyers and a law firm after ChatGPT was blamed for their submission of fictitious legal research in an aviation injury claim.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
27 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Though the governor left little behind to solve the ultimate mystery — where the staircase led —a rare apparition surfaced from Roman Germany, preserved for 2,000 years due to the Romans’ advanced building techniques.—
Maria Mocerino,
Interesting Engineering,
14 Feb. 2026
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And just as the questions are sinking into our souls, some mist starts to rise up from the floorboards of Tower 12 and turn itself into something like a human form, a specter, an apparition, a boy made real.—
Brian Moylan,
Vulture,
11 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
The difference between documentary approaches and fictional approaches to a musical figure — at heart, there’s no difference at all.—
Daniel D'Addario,
Variety,
13 Feb. 2026
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But in a first for Marvel, Abdul-Mateen II was not there as himself, but rather in character as Simon Williams to discuss the fictional Wonder Man movie that is central to season one of the Disney+ show.—
Aaron Couch,
HollywoodReporter,
13 Feb. 2026
Noun
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But the composer also makes great use of the saxophone, which playfully dances through melodies that transport the viewer back to the swinging '60s and evokes the spirit of Henry Mancini.—
Alex Galbraith,
Entertainment Weekly,
15 Feb. 2026
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At the bottom it could be motivated by the needs of the human spirit, some Wellsian desire to push out to the stars.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
15 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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The series follows a teenage boy who forms an unlikely alliance with the Fairy Queen of Celtic lore to search for malevolent mythical creatures from around the world, among them the Yeti, Baba Yaga and a Lady Dracula — not to destroy them, but to save them from impending doom.—
Ed Meza,
Variety,
13 Feb. 2026
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Jones portrays the fierce warrior Prince Vlad of Wallachia, who goes on to become the mythical Dracula.—
Hanna Wickes,
Kansas City Star,
13 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Both are beatless, widescreen, and almost formless, little soundtracks to an imagined world in bloom.—
Alex Robert Ross,
Pitchfork,
13 Feb. 2026
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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
“Phantom.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/phantom. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.
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