How to Use phantom limb in a Sentence

phantom limb

noun
Definition of phantom limbnext
  • The old life is reached for, again and again, like a phantom limb.
    — Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 21 Apr. 2020
  • Life in a diaspora can have the dull ache of a phantom limb.
    — Longreads, 12 Dec. 2022
  • The trouble is that Mainline Protestantism is more like a phantom limb than a budding branch.
    — Samuel Goldman, The Week, 16 July 2021
  • Students are not the only ones who have come to see devices as a sort of reliable phantom limb.
    — WIRED, 9 Sep. 2022
  • Anyway, a phantom limb is bad enough, but a paper just out reports on the case of a phantom finger that was never there in the first place.
    — Neuroskeptic, Discover Magazine, 10 Mar. 2012
  • Running easily is like my phantom limb—its ghost haunts me and itches in my brain.
    — Outside Online, 20 June 2022
  • Much effort has been spent to understand phantom limb syndrome, but this study is among the first to shed light on a converse phenomenon.
    — Tom Roseberry, Scientific American, 4 Sep. 2019
  • So far, these patients have described the sensation of their phantom limb in various ways, said Carty.
    — Gideon Gil, STAT, 16 Sep. 2021
  • Finally, many amputees experience severe phantom limb pain, which refers to the perception of pain in a limb that's no longer there.
    — Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 19 Sep. 2023
  • The game is a form of visual feedback therapy, such as mirror therapy treatment used for people with phantom limb pain.
    — Williesha Morris | [email protected], al, 22 June 2023
  • Additionally, the team spent a month testing the effects of activating the implant to relieve phantom limb pain.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 9 Sep. 2019
  • For a generation raised on the mythology of social mobility, the loss of optimism aches like a phantom limb.
    — Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 23 Oct. 2023
  • This phantom limb creates a pleasurable uncertainty about where the building ends.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 20 Sep. 2021
  • Often what happens is the worst of both worlds: Their presence weirdly endures in the form of immense physical and emotional anguish, impossible to ignore, like a kind of phantom limb.
    — Washington Post, 11 Mar. 2022
  • An estimated 80% of whom experience some form of phantom limb pain, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
    — Dallas News, 4 Dec. 2022
  • The Phantoms Sixteenth century surgeon Ambrose Paré first described phantom limb pain.
    — Iris Kulbatski, Discover Magazine, 30 Oct. 2020
  • While there are other treatments for phantom limb pain, ranging from mirror therapy to prescription pain medications to spinal surgery, the results are mixed and can even be dangerous.
    — Dallas News, 4 Dec. 2022
  • To measure chronic pain, the researchers implanted electrodes in the brains of four volunteers who were experiencing pain after an amputation (phantom limb pain) or a stroke.
    — Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 May 2023
  • The resulting amputation in adulthood leads to agonizing phantom limb pains.
    — Allison Cho, Washington Post, 4 Mar. 2023
  • For cramping and other muscular pain in the phantom limb, Ramachandran’s procedure is remarkably effective.
    — Popular Science, 10 Nov. 2020
  • The study’s authors suggest that the device could be implanted in people during a surgery that already involves a specific nerve, such as an amputation, which often results in an excruciating condition called phantom limb pain.
    — Stephani Sutherland, Scientific American, 1 July 2022
  • Around that same time, neurologist Vilayanur Ramachandran was exploring this kind of phenomenon with amputees who experience phantom limb pain.
    — Popular Science, 10 Nov. 2020
  • Their work fits into a corpus of research on illusory body ownership, which has challenged understandings of perception and contributed to therapies like treating pain for amputees who experience phantom limb.
    — Steph Yin, New York Times, 17 May 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'phantom limb.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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