Make Your Point > Archived Issues > APPARITION
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pronounce
APPARITION:
Say it "APP uh RISH un."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
As we're checking out the word apparition, which often means "something spooky that appears, like a ghost," see if you can recall this similar term:
A re___ant is a person or thing that's returning from the dead, or returning after being gone for a long time. Need a hint? If an apparition is literally "one who appears," then a re___ant is literally "one who comes back;" think of the Latin venire, "to come."
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
"Apparition" traces back to the same Latin verb meaning "appear" (apparere) that gave us the words "appear" and "apparent." More specifically, the Latin bits inside "apparition" mean "something that appears or comes forth to (you)."
In English, we first use "apparition" to mean "the appearance (of anything)," such as a ghost, an angel, a comet, a rainbow, or a visitor.
But pretty soon, the meaning narrowed down, and most of the time, an apparition is the appearance of something that seems supernatural, most often a ghost, or something that reminds you of ghost.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Noun, the countable kind: "Guests say they saw an apparition wandering the halls at night;" "No one's been able to capture these apparitions on camera."
Other forms:
The plural is "apparitions." And the adjective is "apparitional."
how to use it:
Pick the formal, common word "apparition" to give your sentence a flavor that's vague, hazy, spooky, dreamlike, and supernatural. If you call something an apparition, you're hinting that it may have been a ghost. You're basically saying, "I'm not crazy, so I'm not saying it WAS a ghost, just that it was a THING of some sort. That I saw." In this way, the word "apparition" has retained all the dignity and healthy sense of doubt that the term "UFO" has lost.
If you write fiction, or if you write about the occult, you might use "apparition" literally, referring to sights, figures, and beings whose exact identity is unknown. At least to the characters catching a glimpse of them.
Otherwise, you're probably more likely to use "apparition" figuratively ("Moey came home covered in mud, a brown apparition with whiskers"), especially within similes ("Like an apparition, Moey came home, caked in mud, meowing in indignation").
examples:
"[The angel] Balthamos, in a blur of desperation, hurled himself between the children and the soldiers. The men fell back, amazed, as this apparition shimmered into being in front of them."
— Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass, 2000
"When Hailey's Comet reappears in 1986, I wonder what political leaders will fear the apparition, what other silliness will then be upon us."
— Carl Sagan, Cosmos, 1980
has this page helped you understand "apparition"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "apparition" without saying "specter" or "phantom."
try it out:
Apparitions are often ghostly, but they can be supernatural in any sense. They can seem angelic, demonic, godlike, fairylike, goblinesque, you name it.
Check out this example from Agatha Christie:
"Down the steep track into the village a car was coming. A car so fantastically powerful, so superlatively beautiful that it had all the nature of an apparition. At the wheel sat a young man, his hair blown back by the wind. In the blaze of the evening light he looked, not a man, but a young God, a Hero God out of some Northern Saga."
With this car and its driver in mind as an example, talk about another real or fictional object or person that made quite the entrance, like an apparition, as if it came from a different plane of existence.
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game this month is "Codenames MYP." You can play it with a partner or by yourself. It's loosely based on the fantastic game Codenames Duet.
Check out the words in the grid. Ignore the colors; they're just the ones I had on hand.
If you’re playing with a partner, pick any 2 or 3 terms from the grid, and give your partner a one-word clue to help them guess your terms--without stumbling onto any that you didn't pick. Your partner can do the same for you. No hints! Just say your clue word and the number of terms it should point toward.
If you're playing solo, try to guess 3 terms in the grid by using this clue: "water." To see these answers, scroll all the way down.
If you need any definitions, give these a click:
wellspring, battalion, kernel,
embers, hydra, Ship of Theseus,
thicket, marginalia, millstone.
review this word:
A. BEAST, DEMON, and HYDRA.
B. DESIRE, OBSESSION, and IDÉE FIXE.
C. HUMAN, EMBODIMENT, and INCARNATION.
2.
In the world of Harry Potter, assuming you've learned how, you can apparate: that is, you can _____.
A. perform magic without a wand, like the self-sufficient person that you are
B. teleport, or simply appear somewhere, like the supernatural creature that you are
C. read minds, or beam wordless thoughts and images to others, like the deeply intuitive person that you are
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
On vocabulary...
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.
From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
As we're checking out the word apparition, which often means "something spooky that appears, like a ghost," see if you can recall this similar term:
"Apparition" traces back to the same Latin verb meaning "appear" (apparere) that gave us the words "appear" and "apparent." More specifically, the Latin bits inside "apparition" mean "something that appears or comes forth to (you)."
Part of speech:
Pick the formal, common word "apparition" to give your sentence a flavor that's vague, hazy, spooky, dreamlike, and supernatural. If you call something an apparition, you're hinting that it may have been a ghost. You're basically saying, "I'm not crazy, so I'm not saying it WAS a ghost, just that it was a THING of some sort. That I saw." In this way, the word "apparition" has retained all the dignity and healthy sense of doubt that the term "UFO" has lost.
"[The angel] Balthamos, in a blur of desperation, hurled himself between the children and the soldiers. The men fell back, amazed, as this apparition shimmered into being in front of them."
Explain the meaning of "apparition" without saying "specter" or "phantom."
Apparitions are often ghostly, but they can be supernatural in any sense. They can seem angelic, demonic, godlike, fairylike, goblinesque, you name it.
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. |
