[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. |
| 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.] |
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.