Phantasmagorical

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Appearing like a dreamlike sequence of changing and surreal images
2. Having qualities similar to a fantastical and constantly moving series of visions
3. Characterized by a bizarre, hallucinatory display that seems unreal and fluid

Etymology: Phantasmagorical comes from phantasmagoria, the name for an optical entertainment in which ghostly figures seemed to advance and recede before an audience. That noun was built from Greek "phantasma", meaning an appearance or apparition, combined with a element tied to the Greek marketplace, the agora. Spectacle and public performance were built into the term from the start. The adjective adds the suffix "-ical" to that noun, giving the sense of being of, or like, such a display. The result describes things that seem to be conjured rather than seen, with the same dreamlike, theatrical quality that the original show was meant to produce.

Synonyms: fantastical, dreamlike, surreal, illusory, spectral

Antonyms: realistic, ordinary, mundane