phantom

A ghost or apparition.

Adjective

  1. Illusive.
    • […] (it was the town's humour to be always gassing of phantom investors who were likely to come any moment and pay a thousand prices for everything) — “[…] Them rich fellers, they don't make no bad breaks with their...
  2. Fictitious or nonexistent.
    • a phantom limb

Origin

Inherited from Middle English fantome, fanteme, from Old French fantosme, fantasme, from Latin phantasma (“an apparition, specter; (in Late Latin also) appearance, image”), from Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phántasma, “phantasm, an appearance, image, apparition, specter”), from φαντάζω (phantázō, “to make visible”). Doublet of phantasm.

Forms

fantom

Derived

phantom abandoned call phantom bone disease phantom call phantom circuit phantom crane fly phantom debt phantom energy phantom eye syndrome phantom goal phantom island phantom jam phantom limb phantom midge phantomness phantom pain phantom power phantom pregnancy phantom punch phantom reference phantom settlement phantom shiner phantom stock phantom tumour phantom type

Noun

  1. A ghost or apparition.
  2. Something apparently seen, heard, or sensed, but having no physical reality; an image that appears only in the mind; an illusion or delusion.
  3. A placeholder for a pair of players when there are an odd number of pairs playing.
  4. A test object that reproduces the characteristics of human tissue.
  5. Short for phantom power

Forms

phantoms fantom

Synonyms

ghost

Related

fantasy

Derived

giant phantom jelly phantogram phantomic phantomish phantomism phantomist phantomization phantomize phantomlike phantom orchid phantom powering phantomry phantom share phantomship phantom vibration syndrome phantomwise phantom word phantomy quintom