| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| phantom |
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| SYLLABICATION: | phan·tom |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  f n t m |
| VARIANT FORMS: | also fan·tom |
| NOUN: | 1a. Something apparently seen, heard, or sensed, but having no physical reality; a ghost or an apparition. b. Something elusive or delusive. 2. An image that appears only in the mind; an illusion. 3. Something dreaded or despised. | | ADJECTIVE: | 1. Resembling, characteristic of, or being a phantom; illusive. 2. Fictitious; nonexistent: phantom employees on the payroll. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English fantom, from Old French fantosme, probably from Vulgar Latin *phantauma, from Greek dialectal *phantagma, from Greek phantasma. See phantasm.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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