phantom

[fan-tuh m] /ˈfæn təm/

noun

an apparition or specter.

an appearance or illusion without material substance, as a dream image, mirage, or optical illusion.

a person or thing of merely illusory power, status, efficacy, etc.:

the phantom of fear.

an illustration, part of which is given a transparent effect so as to permit representation of details otherwise hidden from view, as the inner workings of a mechanical device.

adjective

of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a phantom; illusory:

a phantom sea serpent.

Electricity. noting or pertaining to a phantom circuit.

named, included, or recorded but nonexistent; fictitious:

Payroll checks were made out and cashed for phantom employees.

Also, fantom.

Origin

1250-1300; Middle English fantosme < Middle French, Old French < Latin phantasma phantasm

Related forms

phantomlike, adjective

Synonyms

1, 2. See apparition. 5. imaginary.

Antonyms

5. real, material.

Examples from the web for phantom

For the general public the distinction between a ghost and phantom is a murky one.
Thus, the dreaded phantom of swamping by large retailers, is a figment of political imagination.
The result is a phantom service billed at the same inconspicuous amount every month to the credit card bill.
For amputees suffering from phantom pain, a computer-generated cure might soon be at hand.
Distraction appears to be an effective technique to avoid the phantom noise of tinnitus.
Attempts at control are doomed to failure unless the phantom lawyer in every consulting room is exorcised for ever.
To me this sounds much more logical than being tickled by a phantom flailing faller.
He points out that plenty of research has been done into another kind of bodily illusion, phantom limbs.
And when the slap connected with his wet cheek, the loud clap stung my face in a phantom sort of way.
Politicians reacting to that inequality would be targeting a phantom.

British Dictionary definitions for phantom

phantom

/ˈfæntəm/

noun

an apparition or spectre
(as modifier): a phantom army marching through the sky

the visible representation of something abstract, esp as appearing in a dream or hallucination: phantoms of evil haunted his sleep

something apparently unpleasant or horrific that has no material form

(med) another name for manikin (sense 2b)

Word Origin

C13: from Old French fantosme, from Latin phantasmaphantasm

Word Origin and History for phantom

c.1300, fantum "illusion, unreality," from Old French fantosme (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *fantauma, from Latin phantasma "an apparition" (see phantasm). The ph- was restored in English late 16c. (see ph). Meaning "specter, spirit, ghost" is attested from late 14c.; that of "something having the form, but not the substance, of a real thing" is from 1707. As an adjective from early 15c.

phantom in Medicine

phantom phan·tom or fan·tom (fān'təm)
n.

Something apparently seen, heard, or sensed, but having no physical reality.
An image that appears only in the mind; an illusion.
A model, especially a transparent one, of the human body or of any of its parts.

adj.

Resembling, characteristic of, or being a phantom; illusive.
Fictitious; nonexistent.