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a supernatural appearance of a person or thing, especially a ghost; a specter or phantom; wraith:
a ghostly apparition at midnight.
anything that , especially something remarkable or startling:
the surprising apparition of cowboys in new york city.
an act of ; manifestation.
astronomy. the appearance or time when a comet, especially a periodic one, is visible:
the 1986 apparition of halley’s comet.
historical examples

the central thought of plato is the theory of ideas—the -ssertion of the apparitional character of the seemingly real world.
the universe a vast electric organism george woodward warder

the marines, with an annoyed air, were settling down again when an apparitional figure came from the bushes.
wounds in the rain stephen crane

this is the second person of the buddhist triad, the apparitional body of gotama.
the metaphysic of christianity and buddhism dawsonne m. strong

viola came to us out of the primeval woods with an effect of apparitional beauty.
atlantic cl-ssics, second series henry c. merwin

she was a slave to hideous rites, gazing at the apparitional snake.
the open boat and other stories stephen crane

to look back at all is to meet the apparitional and to find in its ghostly face the silent stare of an appeal.
a small boy and others henry james

she had come so swiftly, with a silence so apparitional, that he fell back as from a blow between the eyes.
the voice of the people ellen glasgow

the form that was jesse fancher, the body that was his, being matter and apparitional, like an apparition p-ssed and was not.
the jacket (the star-rover) jack london

so with the apparitional world: the delusion p-sses, and unity remains.
the metaphysic of christianity and buddhism dawsonne m. strong

buddha is the all-loving teacher, -ssuming the shape of the beings whom he teaches; this is the nirmna kya, his apparitional body.
the metaphysic of christianity and buddhism dawsonne m. strong

noun
an appearance, esp of a ghost or ghostlike figure
the figure so appearing; phantom; spectre
the act of appearing or being visible
n.

c.1500, “unclosing” (of heaven), from anglo-french aparicion, old french apparition, aparoison (15c.), used in reference to the epiphany (revealing of christ child to the wise men), from late latin apparitionem (nominative apparitio) “an appearance,” also “attendants,” in cl-ssical latin “service, servants,” noun of action from past participle stem of apparere “appear” (see appear). meaning “ghost” first recorded c.1600; the shade of sense differentiation between appearance and apparition is that the latter tends to be unexpected or startling.