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  1. phantasmagoria love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A fantastic sequence of haphazardly associative imagery, as seen in dreams or fever.
  2. n. A constantly changing scene composed of numerous elements.
  3. n. Fantastic imagery as represented in art.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A fantastic series or medley of illusive or terrifying figures or images.
  2. n. Specifically.
  3. n. An exhibition of images or pictures by the agency of light and shadow, as by the magic lantern or the stereopticon; especially, such an exhibition so arranged by a combination of two lanterns or lenses that every view dissolves or merges gradually into the next.
  4. n. The apparatus by means of which such an exhibition is produced; a magic lantern or a stereopticon.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A popular 18th- and 19th-century form of theatre entertainment whereby ghostly apparitions are formed; a magic lantern.
  2. n. A series of events involving rapid changes in light intensity and colour.
  3. n. A dreamlike state where real and imagined elements are blurred together.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. An optical effect produced by a magic lantern. The figures are painted in transparent colors, and all the rest of the glass is opaque black. The screen is between the spectators and the instrument, and the figures are often made to appear as in motion, or to merge into one another.
  2. n. The apparatus by which such an effect is produced.
  3. n. Fig.: A medley of figures; illusive images.

WordNet 3.0

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

Etymologies

  1. From Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phantasma, "ghost") + αγορευειν (agoreuein, "to speak publicly") (Wiktionary)
  2. Alteration of obsolete French phantasmagorie, art of creating supernatural illusions : perhaps fantasme, illusion (from Old French; see phantasm) + allégorie, allegory, allegorical visual representation (from Old French, allegory, from Latin allēgoria; see allegory). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Poe, Baudelaire, and Rimbaud, the phantasmagoria was a favorite metaphor for the heightened sensitivities and often-tormented awareness of the romantic visionary.”

    Smoke and Mirrors: Internalizing the Magic Lantern show in _Vilette_

  • “Densely composed and outrageously Freudian, Brand Upon the Brain! offers psychosexual anxiety, resurrection, vampirism, and the kind of phantasmagoria that exists only in the mind of a playful visionary," writes Fernando F Croce at Slant.”

    GreenCine Daily: Interview. Guy Maddin.

  • “In this state of mind and body, it was not strange that he should either dream, or else that his diseased organs should become subject to that species of phantasmagoria which is excited by the use of opium.”

    The Fair Maid of Perth

  • “Philipstal, staged his "phantasmagoria" in London at the Lyceum, and William Nicholson was in the audience to provide this eyewitness account:”

    Smoke and Mirrors: Internalizing the Magic Lantern show in _Vilette_

  • “Consumed by "phantasmagoria," distracted, entertained, spectators enjoy their alienation from others and themselves and sink into the mass "in an attitude that is pure reaction.”

    Reading Machines

  • “As I earlier explain, "phantasmagoria" has come to take on a specialised meaning, post Castle.”

    Introduction: Gothic Romance as Visual Technology

  • “Shows using ghostly special effects were, in 1787, to be given the name of "phantasmagoria," but de”

    Introduction: Gothic Romance as Visual Technology

  • “He had so withdrawn himself of late to the inner creative life that he moved in a kind of phantasmagoria of outer unrealities.”

    Golden Stories A Selection of the Best Fiction by the Foremost Writers

  • “Densely composed and outrageously Freudian, Brand Upon the Brain! offers psychosexual anxiety, resurrection, vampirism, and the kind of phantasmagoria that exists only in the mind of a playful visionary," writes”

    GreenCine Daily

  • “We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the "ideas" with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience.”

    Who Is IOZ?

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hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. internal representation
  1. mental representation
  1. representation

same context (8)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. phantasm
  1. panorama
  1. kaleidoscope
  1. disorientation
  1. polyhedron
  1. tragi-comedy
  1. archetype
  1. panoply

rhymes (14)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Astoria
  2. Doria
  1. Gloria
  2. Loria
  1. Peoria
  2. Pretoria
  1. Victoria
  2. coria
  1. crematoria
  2. emporia
  1. euphoria
  2. moratoria
  1. moria
  2. victoria

reverse dictionary (5)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. fantasmagoria
  1. phantasmagoric
  1. phantasmagory
  1. phantasmagorist
  1. phantasmagorial

tags (5)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. fun to say
  1. mouthfeel
  1. oneiric
  1. popular
  1. phantasmagorian

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Lists

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Comments

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  • revengeance I have mostly phantasmagoric dreams... Dec 10, 2011

  • PossibleUnderscore 'The monotonous rocking fo the boat, and the murmur of the water, had somewhat stupefied the unhappy Claude. When the boatman had left him, he remained standing stupidly upon the bank, staring straight before him, and seeing everything in a sort of tremulous mist, which made all seem like a phantasmagoria.'

    -The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo Jun 8, 2010

  • yarb Also the title of a dodgy eighties goth-rock album by The Damned. Oct 12, 2007

  • chained_bear My favorite usage: Steven Pinker's
    "the half-million-word phantasmagoria of the English language." Oct 12, 2007

  • faraway *nodding* Sep 14, 2007

  • arkracer A nice word to upset others in converse; they have heard the word, but don't know the meaning, and thus nod along trying to avoid using it. Sep 13, 2007

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‘phantasmagoria’ has been looked up 5588 times, loved by 61 people, added to 176 lists, commented on 6 times, and has a Scrabble score of 22.