phantom

views updated

phan·tom / ˈfantəm/ • n. a ghost: a phantom who haunts lonely roads | fig. the centrist and conservative parties were mere phantoms in 1943 | [as adj.] a phantom ship. ∎  a figment of the imagination: he tried to clear the phantoms from his head and grasp reality | [as adj.] the women suffered from phantom pain that no physician could ever find. ∎  [as adj.] denoting a financial arrangement or transaction that has been invented for fraudulent purposes but that does not really exist: he diverted an estimated $1,500,000 into “phantom” bank accounts. ∎  [as adj.] denoting something, esp. something illegal, that is done by an unknown person: a series of phantom withdrawals from cash machines.

More From encyclopedia.com