Word.ws English Dictionary

idolon

idolon is the alternative form of eidolon.

Meaning of eidolon

Noun

eidolon (plural eidola or eidolons)

  1. An image or representation of an idea; a representation of an ideal form; an apparition of some actual or imaginary entity, or of some aspect of reality.
    • As a species it is extinct; as an eidolon it retains its corporeality – but only if maintained in a state of equipoise.1936, Henry Miller, Black Spring
  2. A phantom; a ghost or an elusive entity.
    • Was Philippe d'Orleans seen, this day, 'in the Bois de Boulogne, in grey surtout;' waiting under the wet sere foliage, what the day might bring forth? Alas, yes, the Eidolon of him was,—in Weber's and other such brains.1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number)
  3. An unsubstantial image; a spectre; a phantom.

Forms of idolon

pluralidolons
pluralidola

Words that rhyme with idolon

Questions about idolon

What is idolon the alternative form of?
Idolon is the alternative form of eidolon.

Words near idolon in the dictionary

  1. idololatrical
  2. idololatrous
  3. idololatry
  4. idolomancy
  5. idolomania
  6. idolon
  7. idolons
  8. idolopoeia
  9. idolous
  10. idols
  11. idolum

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: idolon (page history and authors); eidolon (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “idolon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/idolon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.