How to Use phantom limb in a Sentence

phantom limb

noun
  • The old life is reached for, again and again, like a phantom limb.
    — Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 21 Apr. 2020
  • The movements of his prostheses and his phantom limbs are out of synch.
    — Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 9 Dec. 2024
  • Running easily is like my phantom limb—its ghost haunts me and itches in my brain.
    — Outside Online, 20 June 2022
  • One of the best examples of that is phantom limb pain, which for a long time baffled people.
    — Margaret Cirino, NPR, 4 Apr. 2026
  • How much could the animal sense its phantom limb or prosthesis?
    — Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 9 Dec. 2024
  • Students are not the only ones who have come to see devices as a sort of reliable phantom limb.
    — WIRED, 9 Sep. 2022
  • Previous research suggested phantom limb pain was the result of changes in the brain's body map.
    — Jon Hamilton, NPR, 27 Aug. 2025
  • The trouble is that Mainline Protestantism is more like a phantom limb than a budding branch.
    — Samuel Goldman, The Week, 16 July 2021
  • Anyway, a phantom limb is bad enough, but a paper just out reports on the case of a phantom finger that was never there in the first place.
    — Neuroskeptic, Discover Magazine, 10 Mar. 2012
  • To trick the brain into believing the limb is still part of the body, and — through training, over time — averting the onset of phantom limb pain.
    — Théoden Janes, Charlotte Observer, 6 Nov. 2025
  • Problems with this sense, like phantom limb pain or rejecting a body part after a stroke, can make recovery difficult.
    — Thomas Westerholm, MSNBC Newsweek, 9 June 2025
  • Much effort has been spent to understand phantom limb syndrome, but this study is among the first to shed light on a converse phenomenon.
    — Tom Roseberry, Scientific American, 4 Sep. 2019
  • So far, these patients have described the sensation of their phantom limb in various ways, said Carty.
    — Gideon Gil, STAT, 16 Sep. 2021
  • The game is a form of visual feedback therapy, such as mirror therapy treatment used for people with phantom limb pain.
    — Williesha Morris | [email protected], al, 22 June 2023
  • This phantom limb creates a pleasurable uncertainty about where the building ends.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 20 Sep. 2021
  • Pain is ultimately constructed by the brain, and one of the best pieces of evidence neuroscience has for that is phantom limb pain.
    — Brianne Kane, Scientific American, 17 Apr. 2026
  • Finally, many amputees experience severe phantom limb pain, which refers to the perception of pain in a limb that's no longer there.
    — Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 19 Sep. 2023
  • In other words, a person’s prosthetic limb could potentially be brought into close alignment with their phantom limb.
    — Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 9 Dec. 2024
  • For a generation raised on the mythology of social mobility, the loss of optimism aches like a phantom limb.
    — Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 23 Oct. 2023
  • This severance from Turkey has created a phantom limb experience for me and my brothers.
    — Literary Hub, 10 Feb. 2026
  • Additionally, the team spent a month testing the effects of activating the implant to relieve phantom limb pain.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 9 Sep. 2019
  • Doctors amputated his leg below the knee, but Lin experienced severe phantom limb pain that standard painkillers failed to control.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 22 Nov. 2023
  • The resulting amputation in adulthood leads to agonizing phantom limb pains.
    — Allison Cho, Washington Post, 4 Mar. 2023
  • With the system, the volunteer could clearly distinguish between rounded and sharp objects and felt the sensation coming directly from his phantom limb.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 20 June 2018
  • Lulu, by contrast, was almost immediately given a prosthetic hand, which helped her brain adapt to her new conditions, reducing her phantom limb pains.
    — Boyce Upholt, Southern Living, 19 Nov. 2025
  • While there are other treatments for phantom limb pain, ranging from mirror therapy to prescription pain medications to spinal surgery, the results are mixed and can even be dangerous.
    — Dallas News, 4 Dec. 2022
  • In the article, Markle opened up to Graham about feeling his phantom limb, his upcoming recovery and his feelings toward his younger daughter.
    — Kimi Robinson, USA Today, 12 Dec. 2025
  • Then, as the show progresses into new story lines and the rest of the cast tries to carry on without their key player, almost like a phantom limb, the audience feels a constant twinge that something is missing.
    — Ile-Ife Okantah, Vulture, 21 Jan. 2024
  • Like many Russians, Putin has suffered from something like phantom limb syndrome ever since the Soviet Union collapsed.
    — Calder Walton, Foreign Affairs, 19 July 2023
  • The Phantoms Sixteenth century surgeon Ambrose Paré first described phantom limb pain.
    — Iris Kulbatski, Discover Magazine, 30 Oct. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'phantom limb.' 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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