Phantasm
noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Something seen but having no physical reality; a phantom or apparition.
"But night comes in with a more genial spirit: we have done our worst and our bitterest; and we need a small space to indulge any little bit of cordiality that may be left in us. A thousand gay phantasms float in on the sunny south, which has left the far-off vineyards of its birth."
- 2 something existing in perception only wordnet
- 3 An impression as received by the senses, especially an image, often prior to any interpretation by the intellect.
"When abstracted from the phantasm by the intellectus agens the species effects a modification in the intellectus possibilis which modification is called the species intelligibilis impressa. Actualized by the species impressa the intellectus […]"
- 4 a ghostly appearing figure wordnet
Example
More examples"There were many kinds of early Christians. Some sects never made it to the present time. One of them was the Ebionites, from the Hebrew "ebyonim" for poor. They revered Jesus' supposed brother James the Just, but rejected the missionary Paul of Tarsus. They believed that Mary was not a virgin and that Jesus was adopted by God. The Ebionites were vegetarians. There were many other extinct sects of Christianity. At that time, the distinction between Jews and Christians was not really clear-cut. Another sect that is extinct today is the Marcionites. Marcion of Sinope (circa 85-160 CE) wrote books that did not survive to the present day; one book that he wrote was The Antitheses. Unlike the Ebionites who still followed Jewish Law and thought that Jesus was human, not God, the Marcionites rejected Jewish Law and thought that Jesus was God, not human. The Marcionites believed that there were 2 gods, the Creator God of the Jews and the God of Jesus. Jesus was the God of mercy and love; he was to save people from the wrathful Creator God. "Docetism" is the term used for thinking that Jesus was a phantasm that appeared human. Marcionites believed that Jesus was not born into this world. Their canon was something like the New Testament, but more compact, and phrases that Marcion thought were scribes' earlier modifications had been elided."
Etymology
A learned variant of phantom; from Middle English fantosme, from Old French fantosme, fantasme, from Latin phantasma, from Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phántasma). Doublet of phantom.
More for "phantasm"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.