Dictionary

phantasmal en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (General-American) audio
• /fænˈtæzml̩/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /fænˈtæzməl/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From phantasm or phantasma (“phantasm”) + -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives).

Meanings

1. Of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantasm (“something seen but having no physical reality”); imaginary, unreal.
   • Her secrets: old feather fans, tassled dancecards, powdered with musk, a gaud of amber beads in her locked drawer. […] Phantasmal mirth, folded away: muskperfumed. 1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 10:
   • [H]e had heard about him the constant voices of his father and of his masters, urging him to be a gentleman above all things and urging him to be a good catholic above all things. […] And it was the din of all these hollowsounding voices that made him halt irresolutely in the pursuit of phantoms. He gave them ear only for a time but he was happy only when he was far from them, beyond their call, alone or in the company of phantasmal comrades. 1916, James Joyce, chapter II, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 93:
   • Mr. Audley, the chairman, was an amiable, elderly man who still wore Gladstone collars; he was a kind of symbol of all that phantasmal and yet fixed society. 1910 October 1, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Queer Feet”, in The Innocence of Father Brown, London; New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Company, published 1911, →OCLC, page 80:
   • The matter of which dreams are made / Not more endowed with actual life / Than this phantasmal portraiture / Of wandering human thought. 1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Canto VII”, in Queen Mab; […], London: […] P. B. Shelley, […], →OCLC, page 98:
2. Of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantasm (“something seen but having no physical reality”); imaginary, unreal. ▸ Of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantom (“apparition or ghost”); ghostly, spectral.
3. Of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantasm (“something seen but having no physical reality”); imaginary, unreal. ▸ Of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantasm (“perception or vision of a living or dead person who is not physically present, often through telepathy”).

Forms

Deriveds

phantasmally · phantasmalian · phantasmality

Relateds

phantastical · phantasm · phantasmatic · phantastically · phantomatic · phantasmically · phantasmagoria · phantasmatical · phantasmical · phantasy · phantasmic · phantasma · phantastic · phantom · fantasmatic

Synonyms

ghostlike · phantasmatic · phantasmical · phantasmic · phantasmical · ghostly · wraithlike · phantasmal · phantomatic · wraithy · phantomatic · phantasmatic · spooky · phantasmatical · phantasmic · phantasmical · apparitional · phantasmatic · spectral · phantomic · phantomatic · phantasmic · ghastly · phantomlike · phantasmatical · phantasmatical · ghostish · phantasmic

Translations (7)

fr fantasmatique (of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantom — see also ghostly, spectral) · fi aavemainen (of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantom — see also ghostly, spectral) · ro fantasmatic (of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantom — see also ghostly, spectral) · eo fantoma (of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantom — see also ghostly, spectral) · ru при́зрачный (of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantom — see also ghostly, spectral) · es fantasmal (of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantom — see also ghostly, spectral) · it fantasmatico (of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantom — see also ghostly, spectral)