apparition

Plural: apparitions

Noun

• a ghostly appearing figure
  • "we were unprepared for the apparition that confronted us"
• the appearance of a ghostlike figure
  • "I was recalled to the present by the apparition of a frightening specter"
• something existing in perception only
  • "a ghostly apparition at midnight"
• an act of appearing or becoming visible unexpectedly
  • "natives were amazed at the apparition of this white stranger"
• An act of becoming visible; appearance; visibility.
• The thing appearing; a visible object; a form.
• An unexpected, wonderful, or preternatural appearance; especially, one by a ghost, phantom, or suchlike; the entity itself.
• The first appearance of a star or other luminary after having been invisible or obscured; opposed to occultation.
• A period of consecutive days or nights when a particular celestial body may be observed, beginning with the heliacal rising of the body and ending with its heliacal setting.

Examples

• He spoke to the apparition, and although its lips did not move, he somehow heard its reply.
• The attic is said to be haunted by the ghostly apparition of a young girl who died there.
• The region's economy is buoyed by tourism driven by past apparitions of the Virgin Mary.

Synonyms

fantasm, phantasm, phantasma, phantom, shadow, specter, spectre, apparition, barghest, duppy, eidolon, empuse, ghost, haint, haunt, jumbie, poltergeist, revenant, shade, spirit, spook, sprite, vision, visitant, wraith

Related Words

apparent, appearance