Standard Lemma guide

phantasmagoria

noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˌfæntæzməˈɡɒɹi.ə/
  • US: /ˌfæntæzməˈɡɔːɹi.ə/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɔːɹiə
  • CMU ARPABET: F AE0 N T AE2 Z M AH0 G AO1 R IY0 AH0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A popular 18th- and 19th-century form of theater entertainment whereby ghostly apparitions are formed.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: historical

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: magic lantern

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A series of events involving rapid changes in light intensity and color.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A dreamlike state where real and imagined elements are blurred together.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • 1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life Chapter V It is impossible to convey, in words, any idea of the hideous phantasmagoria of shifting limbs and faces which moved through the evil-smelling twilight of this terrible prison-house. Callot might have drawn it, Dante might have suggested it, but a minute attempt to describe its horrors would but disgust. There are depths in humanity which one cannot explore, as there are mephitic caverns into which one dare not penetrate.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

a constantly changing medley of real or imagined images (as in a dream)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: representation, mental representation, internal representation

History

Etymology

Borrowed from French phantasmagorie, from Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phántasma, “ghost”) + possibly either ἀγορά (agorá, “assembly, gathering”) + the suffix -ia or ἀγορεύω (agoreúō, “to speak publicly”).

Across languages

Translations

22 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: fantasmagoria — a series of events
  • Chinese Mandarin: 走馬燈 /走马灯 (zǒumǎdēng) — a series of events
  • Finnish: fantasmagoria — a series of events
  • Japanese: 幻灯 (gentō) — a series of events
  • Japanese: 走馬灯 (sōmatō) — a series of events
  • Japanese: 影絵 (kage-e) — a series of events
  • Serbo-Croatian: fantazmagòrija — a series of events
  • Belarusian: фантасмаго́рыя (fantasmahóryja) — a dreamlike state
  • Catalan: fantasmagoria — a dreamlike state
  • Finnish: fantasmagoria — a dreamlike state
  • French: fantasmagorie — a dreamlike state
  • German: Phantasmagorie — a dreamlike state
  • Hungarian: fantazmagória — a dreamlike state
  • Italian: fantasmagoria — a dreamlike state
  • Japanese: 幻 (maboroshi) — a dreamlike state
  • Polish: fantasmagoria — a dreamlike state
  • Portuguese: fantasmagoria — a dreamlike state
  • Romanian: fantasmagorie — a dreamlike state
  • Russian: фантасмаго́рия (fantasmagórija) — a dreamlike state
  • Serbo-Croatian: fantazmagòrija — a dreamlike state
  • Spanish: fantasmagoría — a dreamlike state
  • Ukrainian: фантасмаго́рія (fantasmahórija) — a dreamlike state