phantasmagoria
Americannoun
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a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination.
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a changing scene made up of many elements.
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an optical illusion produced by a magic lantern or the like in which figures increase or diminish in size, pass into each other, dissolve, etc.
noun
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psychol a shifting medley of real or imagined figures, as in a dream
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films a sequence of pictures made to vary in size rapidly while remaining in focus
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rare a shifting scene composed of different elements
Other Word Forms
- phantasmagorial adjective
- phantasmagorian adjective
- phantasmagoric adjective
- phantasmagorically adverb
- phantasmagorist noun
Etymology
Origin of phantasmagoria
1795–1805; < French fantasmagorie, compound based on fantasme phantasm; second element perhaps representing Greek agorá assembly, gathering; -ia
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In this enormous projection piece, Eliasson unfurls a phantasmagoria of shifting shapes and amorphous space across a vast fabric scrim stretched between the walls of a large, darkened museum gallery.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 9, 2024
For me, that phantasmagoria included years of nightmares that jolted me awake.
From Slate • Jun. 4, 2023
So, the dominant artistic mode is phantasmagoria, in which the world seems surreal and disjointed, like the old joke about history: It’s just one thing after another.
From Washington Post • Jan. 12, 2023
From there, the "letter" takes readers through a phantasmagoria of wonders, describing our posthuman progeny as living in "surpassing bliss and delight."
From Salon • Nov. 20, 2022
If we could only juxtapose one eyeball of this sanctified woman and a television tube, both being roughly of the same shape and design, what a phantasmagoria of exploding electrodes would occur.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
