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Definition of phantom - 8 dictionary results

phan⋅tom

[fan-tuhm]
–noun
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.
–adjective
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.
Also, fantom.


Origin:
1250–1300; ME fantosme < MF, OF < L phantasma phantasm


phan⋅tom⋅like, adjective


1, 2. See apparition. 5. imaginary.


5. real, material.
phan·tom also fan·tom   (fān'təm)   
n.  
    1. Something apparently seen, heard, or sensed, but having no physical reality; a ghost or an apparition.
    2. Something elusive or delusive.
  1. An image that appears only in the mind; an illusion.
  2. Something dreaded or despised.
adj.  
  1. Resembling, characteristic of, or being a phantom; illusive.
  2. Fictitious; nonexistent: phantom employees on the payroll.

[Middle English fantom, from Old French fantosme, probably from Vulgar Latin *phantauma, from Greek dialectal *phantagma, from Greek phantasma; see phantasm.]

Phantom

Phan"tom\, a. Being, or of the nature of, a phantom.

Phantom isles are floating in the skies. --B. Taylor.

Phantom

Phan"tom\, n. [OE. fantome, fantosme, fantesme, OF. fant[^o]me, fr. L. phantasma, Gr. ?, fr. ? to show. See Fancy, and cf. Pha["e]ton, Phantasm, Phase.] That which has only an apparent existence; an apparition; a specter; a phantasm; a sprite; an airy spirit; an ideal image.

Strange phantoms rising as the mists arise. --Pope.

She was a phantom of delight. --Wordsworth.

Phantom ship. See Flying Dutchman, under Flying.

Phantom tumor (Med.), a swelling, especially of the abdomen, due to muscular spasm, accumulation of flatus, etc., simulating an actual tumor in appearance, but disappearing upon the administration of an an[ae]sthetic.
Language Translation for : phantom
Spanish: fantasma,
German: die Erscheinung,
Japanese:

phantom 
c.1300, fantum "illusion, unreality," from O.Fr. fantesme (12c.), from V.L. *fantauma, from L. phantasma (see phantasm). The ph- restored in Eng. c.1590. Meaning "specter, spirit, ghost" is attested from 1382; that of "something having the form, but not the substance, of a real thing" is from 1707.

Main Entry: 1phan·tom
Variant: also fan·tom /'fant-&m/
Function: noun
1 : a model of the body or oneof its parts
2 : a body of material resembling a body or bodily part in mass, composition, and dimensions and used to measure absorption of radiations

Main Entry: 2phantom
Variant: also fantom
Function: adjective
: not caused by an anatomical lesion <phantom respiratorydisorders>

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

  1. Something apparently seen, heard, or sensed, but having no physical reality.
  2. An image that appears only in the mind; an illusion.
  3. A model, especially a transparent one, of the human body or of any of its parts.
adj.
  1. Resembling, characteristic of, or being a phantom; illusive.
  2. Fictitious; nonexistent.

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