phantasmic means like a phantasm; ghostly, unreal. It carries an Arena rating of 1472, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, phantasmic ranks #1,122 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #2,623 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #3,670 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #4,204 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
Why “phantasmic” is a great word
Resembling or characteristic of a phantasm; ghostly, spectral, or unreal. From 'phantasm' (from Middle English fantasme, from Anglo-French fantasme, from Latin phantasma, from Greek phantasma, meaning "image, phantom, apparition") + the adjectival suffix '-ic' (meaning "of, pertaining to"), first attested in the 1820s. Unlike "phantasmagoric," which describes a frantic, shifting pageant of illusions, or "ethereal," which implies a delicate, celestial lightness, phantasmic denotes a singular, pervasive unreality that haunts the solid world. It is the shape that vanishes when you turn your head, the chill in a sunlit room, and the face in the mirror that seems, for a half-second, not your own—the quiet evidence that reality is a tenant, not a landlord.
Etymology
From phantasm + -ic.
adj
- Like a phantasm; ghostly, unreal.e.g.“Bits of phantasmic poetry by Emily Bronte.” — 1974 February 2, Pat M. Kuras, “Nary a Creampuff”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 32, page 18:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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