From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishphantasmphan‧tas‧m /ˈfæntæzəm/ noun [countable, uncountable] literaryIMAGINE something that exists only in your imagination SYN illusion
Examples from the Corpus
phantasm• The sepoy was no phantasm ... on the contrary, he looked more consistent than ever.• After all, what most urgently needs thought in this century, if not the event and the phantasm?• The philosophy of the phantasm may, however, help us to do justice to the event of Foucault himself.Origin phantasm (1200-1300) Old French fantasme, from Latin phantasma, from Greek, from phantazein “to present to the mind” 