How to Use phantasmagoria in a Sentence

phantasmagoria

noun
  • He saw a phantasmagoria of shadowy creatures through the fog.
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • There is something more than the muffled phantasmagoria of urban life going on here.
    Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2023
  • What follows is a phantasmagoria that is more cheesy than transporting.
    Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 Mar. 2018
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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 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
  • 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
  • Previously adapted for the big screen in a confounding and ill-fated 1984 David Lynch phantasmagoria, Dune has, over the decades, become one of those rare fanboy and -girl properties that's begged for another go-round.
    Christian Holub, EW.com, 3 Sep. 2021
  • 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
  • For four years Mr. Ditko imagined Strange’s netherworlds, Dalí-esque dimensions and neuron-like phantasmagorias.
    Dana Jennings, New York Times, 27 Oct. 2016
  • 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
  • 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
  • Enter the daughters of the Major General (a theatrically crisp Matt Kahler) in a frolicsome phantasmagoria of nubile beauty.
    Charles McNulty, latimes.com, 26 Jan. 2018
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • But the fact that the Trump Show has remained a 24-hour phantasmagoria, while the Trump administration has learned the subtle arts of bureaucracy, has meant that the two are increasingly independent — with the former overshadowing the latter.
    Dara Lind, Vox, 27 Apr. 2018
  • 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
  • Donald Trump – gaudy real-estate brander, reality-show star, educational huckster – has been in the glare just as long (as Clinton), but as a bit player in the national phantasmagoria.
    Phillip Morris, cleveland.com, 21 July 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
  • Rowe’s phantasmagoria returns this summer, haunting the Frost Amphitheater on the Stanford University campus.
    Celia Wren, Washington Post, 8 June 2023
  • Alas, Harper also has the misfortune of anchoring the latest cinematic phantasmagoria from Alex Garland, a writer and director who likes to play sinister mind games with characters and audiences alike.
    Justin Changfilm Critic, Los Angeles Times, 19 May 2022
  • The Museum of Fine Art’s has created its own phantasmagoria, an early 19th-century entertainment for thrill-seekers featuring hair-raising sounds and moving images cast by magic lanterns.
    BostonGlobe.com, 16 Mar. 2018

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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