Apparition
//ˌæp.ɚˈɪʃ.n̩// noun
noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An act of becoming visible; appearance; visibility.
"the sudden apparition of the Spaniards"
- 2 an act of appearing or becoming visible unexpectedly wordnet
- 3 The thing appearing; a visible object; a form.
"[…] which apparition, it seems, was you."
- 4 something existing in perception only wordnet
- 5 An unexpected, wonderful, or preternatural appearance; especially, one by a ghost, phantom, or suchlike; the entity itself.
"The region's economy is buoyed by tourism driven by past apparitions of the Virgin Mary."
Show 4 more definitions
- 6 the appearance of a ghostlike figure wordnet
- 7 The first appearance of a star or other luminary after having been invisible or obscured; opposed to occultation.
- 8 a ghostly appearing figure wordnet
- 9 A period of consecutive days or nights when a particular celestial body may be observed, beginning with the heliacal rising of the body and ending with its heliacal setting.
Example
More examples"The story of Jesus Christ appearing after he was dead is the story of an apparition, such as timid imaginations can always create in vision, and credulity believe."
Etymology
From Middle French apparition, from Latin apparitio, from appareo.
Related phrases
More for "apparition"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.