How to Use phantasmagoria in a Sentence

phantasmagoria

noun
  • He saw a phantasmagoria of shadowy creatures through the fog.
  • What follows is a phantasmagoria that is more cheesy than transporting.
    — Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 Mar. 2018
  • Their endings are inscribed on their lives, making the city a kind of phantasmagoria filled with the living dead.
    — Sam Sacks, WSJ, 24 Jan. 2020
  • There is something more than the muffled phantasmagoria of urban life going on here.
    — Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2023
  • Beau's stress levels fly off the charts when a trip to visit his mom turns into a nightmarish phantasmagoria.
    — Clark Collis, EW.com, 29 Apr. 2023
  • Onetti’s style, which can create such lovely scenes of phantasmagoria, can be obscure in other ways.
    — Edmund White, Harper's magazine, 6 Jan. 2020
  • The film becomes a kind of phantasmagoria as you are left wondering what’s real, what’s imagined and whether or not that even matters.
    — Lindsey Bahr, Detroit Free Press, 25 Oct. 2019
  • Inside, the viewer is immersed in a jaw-dropping phantasmagoria.
    — Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Sep. 2023
  • But a paler phantasmagoria awaits, one that will please some viewers on the edges of the indie-creepsville scene but will be off-putting to most mainstream audiences.
    — John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Sep. 2017
  • The old man braves a nocturnal phantasmagoria of three-hooved horses, zombies with leafy heads, a demoness toting souls in an oxcart.
    — New York Times, 27 June 2018
  • And a phantasmagoria of an inning began a descent that took the Tigers one step closer to absolute rock bottom.
    — Cody Stavenhagen, New York Times, 24 Sep. 2025
  • Will someone make a terrifying phantasmagoria called Jack and Jill?
    — Clark Collis, EW.com, 8 Sep. 2023
  • This giddy phantasmagoria marked a drastic departure for the director.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 18 Jan. 2024
  • Its members might be entering their 80s, but the group's rebellious spirit and rock & roll phantasmagoria is as potent as ever.
    — Ew Staff, EW.com, 25 Sep. 2023
  • Before the development of a protocol to fend off the raptures, there was every chance that what a diver witnessed on their descent was a phantasmagoria of the mind, as much as of the ocean.
    — Rebecca Giggs, The New York Review of Books, 1 Dec. 2022
  • The collection seemed at times like a visual phantasmagoria, dipping in and out of different times periods as the house itself looks back to its heritage and forward to the future.
    — Thomas Adamson, USA TODAY, 6 Oct. 2021
  • Saving not just time but effort is key to forward momentum in the industrial phantasmagoria that is, at this moment, blasting circus music into my ears.
    — Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, 10 Aug. 2020
  • Saving not just time but effort is key to forward momentum in the industrial phantasmagoria that is, at this moment, blasting circus music into my ears.
    — Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, 10 Aug. 2020
  • Nelsons’s treatment of the vast, sprawling finale found a sweet spot between control and freedom, and brought out the vividness of Mahler’s musical phantasmagoria.
    — Jeremy Eichler, BostonGlobe.com, 21 Oct. 2022
  • The agro-industrial phantasmagoria grows in scale with every iteration.
    — Jan Dutkiewicz, The New Republic, 15 Feb. 2023
  • The modern stadium is a phantasmagoria of viewing technology—massive monitors hang above the floor and decorate seating tiers like bunting.
    — Sharon Weinberger, Popular Mechanics, 11 June 2012
  • Younger rightists dodge the war-taint by blaming everything on a ghoulish cabal of neoconservatives whose Wilsonian phantasmagoria once held their party in thrall.
    — David Harsanyi, National Review, 16 Mar. 2023
  • From students to engineers, serial entrepreneurs to singers and lawmakers, the wave of violence continues to leave behind a phantasmagoria of horror, misery, and anger.
    — Abdi Latif Dahir, Quartz Africa, 15 July 2019
  • More than ever before, Industry is a high-low phantasmagoria of decadence, amorality, and vice set in the pressure cooker of international finance.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 7 Jan. 2026
  • The movie explores the weight of beliefs on one’s destiny through four characters accused of being witches and sorcerers, all of them intertwined and guiding each other into the phantasmagoria of Africa.
    — Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 21 Apr. 2023
  • Joaquin Phoenix stars as Beau Wassermann, a middle-aged man struggling to make sense of himself and his relationship to his mother amid a phantasmagoria of experiences and memories.
    — Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 14 Apr. 2023
  • Subbing in a new melody concocted with moody synths and '80s drum beats, the track transforms itself into an avant-pop phantasmagoria that blends perfectly with Mike Hadreas' otherworldly vocals.
    — Stephen Daw, Billboard, 15 Jan. 2021
  • Climax This mind-melting phantasmagoria from Gaspar Noé tracks the mental deterioration of a dance troupe whose communal bowl of sangria gets spiked with acid at a post-rehearsal party.
    — Clark Collis, EW.com, 23 Dec. 2019
  • And beneath the stagecraft phantasmagoria was a steady stream of Perry's snappy, unpretentious, apolitical, anti-angsty pop anthems that had the older members of the audience dancing.
    — Doug MacCash, NOLA.com, 8 Jan. 2018
  • Several theater companies have embraced Act III’s blend of philosophical phantasmagoria and staged it on its own; others have jettisoned it and zipped ahead to the fourth and final act.
    — Eric Grode, New York Times, 19 Aug. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'phantasmagoria.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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