Meaning & use
eidolon
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An idealized image or apparition of a person, or a phantom-like double; a literary term for a ghostly likeness.
See it in a sentence
The poem describes an eidolon of the lost soldier appearing to his mother in a dream.
Critics called the portrait less a true likeness than an eidolon of the sitter's public image.
A note on using this word
A literary and somewhat archaic word, borrowed from Greek; it appears more often in poetry and criticism than in everyday speech.
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