Synonyms of phantom

phantom 1 of 2

adjective

as in imaginary

not real and existing only in the imagination

the company claimed that the only hazards involving its product were the phantom dangers created by consumer groups

Synonyms & Similar Words

• imaginary
• fictitious
• fictional
• mythical
• fantasied
• imagined
• imaginal
• phantasmal
• ideal
• unreal
• invented
• chimerical
• make-believe
• phantasmic
• notional
• fanciful
• legendary
• theoretical
• pretend
• fantastic
• made-up
• visionary
• hypothetical
• fabled
• fabulous
• romantic
• unlikely
• abstract
• illusory
• unbelievable
• fictive
• nonexistent
• deceptive
• hallucinatory
• unconvincing
• visualized
• phantasmagoric
• delusive
• envisioned
• conceived
• pictured
• delusional
• fabricated
• envisaged
• feigned
• concocted
• daydreamlike
• inexistent

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• real
• actual
• existing
• true
• existent
• genuine
• authentic
• physical
• factual
• realistic
• verifiable
• substantial
• solid
• convincing
• corporeal
• believable
• material
• tangible
• verified
• palpable

phantom

2 of 2

noun

ˈfan-təm 

as in ghost

the soul of a dead person thought of especially as appearing to living people

Halloween is supposed to be a time when phantoms return to walk among us

Synonyms & Similar Words

• ghost
• apparition
• spirit
• wraith
• specter
• haunt
• phantasm
• poltergeist
• vampire
• shadow
• materialization
• demon
• spook
• vision
• sprite
• zombie
• familiar spirit
• visitant
• angel
• bogey
• hant
• ghoul
• shade
• double
• familiar
• genie
• doppelgänger
• daimon
• fetch
• incubus
• succubus
• jinni
• genius
• manes
• devil
• shaitan
• imp
• lemures
• lamia
• fiend
• cacodemon

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of phantom

Adjective

In Minnesota, autism therapy spending skyrocketed by 50,000% in six years, driven in large part by fraudulent entities now facing federal indictments for tens of millions in phantom billing. — Richard Popiel, Boston Herald, 30 Aug. 2026

In a new cross-sectional study, researchers at Istanbul Medipol University in Türkiye set out to explain the neuroscience behind these phantom earthquake sensations. — New Atlas, 17 Aug. 2026

Noun

On the 1994 comeback album Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins, Sparks imagined Liberace, who died in 1987, making his own comeback in the afterlife, adored again as a phantom haunting the Earth. — Al Shipley, SPIN, 31 July 2026

Left behind are her great-grandmother’s haunting journals detailing the story of her own phantom, and subsequently, her brutal murder. — Jennifer Maas, Variety, 25 July 2026