Standard Lemma guide

phosphene

noun · 1 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.

  • homophone: phosphine

1

noun

Meaning 1

A sensation of lights induced by mechanical, electrical, or magnetic stimulation (rather than optical) of the retina or visual cortex, or by random firing of cells in the visual system.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From French phosphène, from Ancient Greek φῶς (phôs, “light”) + φαίνω (phaínō, “to appear, shine”).

Across languages

Translations

8 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: fosfè — sensation of lights
  • Dutch: fosfeen — sensation of lights
  • Finnish: fosfeeni — sensation of lights
  • French: phosphène — sensation of lights
  • Galician: fosfeno — sensation of lights
  • Occitan: fosfèn — sensation of lights
  • Portuguese: fosfeno — sensation of lights
  • Spanish: fosfeno — sensation of lights