phantom

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A ghost or something that seems to appear but is not really there.

   The old castle was said to be haunted by a phantom.

2. 2
   adj

   Not real; existing only in the mind or seeming to exist.

   After losing his arm, he still felt phantom pain where it had been.

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.

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