phantom
adjective/ˈfæntəm/
/ˈfæntəm/
[only before noun]- like a ghost
- a phantom horseman
- existing only in your imagination
- phantom profits
- phantom illnesses
- a phantom pregnancy (= a condition in which a woman seems to be pregnant but in fact is not)
Word OriginMiddle English (also in the sense ‘illusion, delusion’): from Old French fantosme, based on Greek phantasma, from phantazein ‘make visible’, from phainein ‘to show’.
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