illusion vs phantom

illusion

noun
  • A misapprehension; a belief in something that is in fact not true. 

  • Anything that seems to be something that it is not. 

  • A magician’s trick. 

  • The state of being deceived or misled. 

phantom

noun
  • Something apparently seen, heard, or sensed, but having no physical reality; an image that appears only in the mind; an illusion or delusion. 

  • A ghost or apparition. 

  • A placeholder for a pair of players when there are an odd number of pairs playing. 

  • A test object. A test phantom is an object that reproduces the characteristics of human tissue. 

adj
  • Illusive. 

  • Fictitious or nonexistent. 

How often have the words illusion and phantom occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )