PHANTOM

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does phantom mean? 

• PHANTOM (noun)
  The noun PHANTOM has 2 senses:

1. a ghostly appearing figure

2. something existing in perception only

  Familiarity information: PHANTOM used as a noun is rare.

• PHANTOM (adjective)
  The adjective PHANTOM has 1 sense:

1. something apparently sensed but having no physical reality

  Familiarity information: PHANTOM used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PHANTOM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A ghostly appearing figure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

apparition; fantasm; phantasm; phantasma; phantom; specter; spectre

Context example:

we were unprepared for the apparition that confronted us

Hypernyms ("phantom" is a kind of...):

disembodied spirit; spirit (any incorporeal supernatural being that can become visible (or audible) to human beings)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "phantom"):

Flying Dutchman (the captain of a phantom ship (the Flying Dutchman) who was condemned to sail against the wind until Judgment Day)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Something existing in perception only

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

apparition; fantasm; phantasm; phantasma; phantom; shadow

Context example:

a ghostly apparition at midnight

Hypernyms ("phantom" is a kind of...):

illusion; semblance (an erroneous mental representation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "phantom"):

flying saucer; UFO; unidentified flying object (an (apparently) flying object whose nature is unknown; especially those considered to have extraterrestrial origins)

Flying Dutchman (a phantom ship that is said to appear in storms near the Cape of Good Hope)

ghost; shade; specter; spectre; spook; wraith (a mental representation of some haunting experience)

• PHANTOM (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Something apparently sensed but having no physical reality

Context example:

the amputee's illusion of a phantom limb

Similar:

unreal (not actually such; being or seeming fanciful or imaginary)

 Context examples 

Within these functional categories phantoms can be further defined. (1) Body Phantoms: have the shape and composition of the human body or part of it.

(Imaging Phantoms, NCI Thesaurus)

The sensation of pain or other unpleasant feelings in the place of a missing (phantom) limb.

(Phantom limb pain, NCI Dictionary)

It was a transfigured face, with great shining eyes that gazed beyond the veil of sound and saw behind it the leap and pulse of life and the gigantic phantoms of the spirit.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

More and more they gathered till they seemed to take dim phantom shapes.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

They found that phantom brightness enhancements appear in places where the viewer is looking through a "fold" in the curtain.

(Saturn Moon's Activity Could Be 'Curtain Eruptions', NASA)

The gel-filled model (phantom) then undergoes MRI, CT, ultrasound, or radiation therapy, to gauge how effective the same procedure might be for the patient.

(Gel Dosimetry, NCI Thesaurus)

I have stood aside to see the phantoms of those days go by me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

His sleep was broken by infant wails and visions of a phantom figure pacing noiselessly to and fro in the watches of the night.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Some amputees have phantom pain, which is the feeling of pain in the missing limb.

(Limb Loss, NIH)

The two ships becalmed on a torpid sea, I believed to be marine phantoms.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)