[fan-tuh
m] 
| 1. | an apparition or specter. |
| 2. | an appearance or illusion without material substance, as a dream image, mirage, or optical illusion. |
| 3. | a person or thing of merely illusory power, status, efficacy, etc.: the phantom of fear. |
| 4. | 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. |
| 5. | of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a phantom; illusory: a phantom sea serpent. |
| 6. | Electricity. noting or pertaining to a phantom circuit. |
| 7. | named, included, or recorded but nonexistent; fictitious: Payroll checks were made out and cashed for phantom employees. |
| fan·tom (fān'təm) n. & adj. Variant of phantom. |
| phan·tom also fan·tom (fān'təm) n.
[Middle English fantom, from Old French fantosme, probably from Vulgar Latin *phantauma, from Greek dialectal *phantagma, from Greek phantasma; see phantasm.] |
fantom fan·tom (fān'təm)
n.
Variant of phantom.
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.
Resembling, characteristic of, or being a phantom; illusive.
Fictitious; nonexistent.