phantasms
Ghosts of imagination
Phantasms are ghostly apparitions or figments of the imagination—things seen that aren't really there.
The word carries a dreamlike, literary quality: Phantasms haunted his fevered sleep.
It can describe mental images generally, especially vivid or disturbing ones, or illusory appearances that deceive the senses.
Supernatural visible manifestations
- spectersVisible ghostly presences
- ghostsSpirits of the deceased
- wraithsVisible forms of dead
- spiritsLiquor or apparitions
shades · revenants · poltergeists · haunting · ectoplasm · manifestations · banshees · phantoms
Perceptions without external cause
- delusionsFirmly held false beliefs
- illusionsDeceptive sensory experiences
- figmentsInvented mental constructs
- imaginingsMental inventions, not real
visions · mirages · chimeras · mental · fever-dream · delirium · perception · mind
American gothic writer's surname
- specterGhostly threatening presence
- hauntingDisturbingly unforgettable
- macabreDisturbing, death-obsessed
- supernaturalBeyond natural explanation
uncanny · Dickens · apparition · ethereal · romanticism · eerie · grotesque · spectral
Study of subjective experience
- appearanceOutward visible form
- illusionMisleading sensory impression
- PlatoGreek philosopher, academy founder
- perceptionMental interpretation of stimuli
reality · representation · existence · metaphysics · immaterial · consciousness · being · semblance
apparitions
Supernatural visible manifestations
spirits · shades · revenants · poltergeists · haunting · ectoplasm · manifestations · banshees · phantoms · séance
hallucinations
Perceptions without external cause
- delusionsFirmly held false beliefs
- illusionsDeceptive sensory experiences
- figmentsInvented mental constructs
imaginings · visions · mirages · chimeras · mental · fever-dream · delirium · perception · mind · unreality
Poe
American gothic writer's surname
- specterGhostly threatening presence
- hauntingDisturbingly unforgettable
- macabreDisturbing, death-obsessed
supernatural · uncanny · Dickens · apparition · ethereal · romanticism · eerie · grotesque · spectral · dread
phenomenology
Study of subjective experience
- appearanceOutward visible form
- illusionMisleading sensory impression
- PlatoGreek philosopher, academy founder
perception · reality · representation · existence · metaphysics · immaterial · consciousness · being · semblance · unreality
phantasmsrealities
Things that exist
actualities · facts · substances · verities · certainties
phantasmsflesh and blood
One's close relatives
real people · living creatures · human beings · living things · warm bodies
phantasm, phantasmagoria, phantasmic, phantasmagoric, phantasmagorical