a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination.
2.
a changing scene made up of many elements.
3.
an optical illusion produced by a magic lantern or the like in which figures increase or diminish in size, pass into each other, dissolve, etc.
Origin: 1795–1805; < French fantasmagorie, compound based on fantasmephantasm; second element perhaps representing Greek agorá assembly, gathering; see -ia