Fata Morgana

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A form of mirage seen just above the horizon, caused by a temperature inversion in the atmosphere, in which multiple upright and inverted images of a distant object appear to be stacked on top of each other in a highly distorted fashion; especially one seen at sea, and particularly in the Strait of Messina.
noun
  1. Alternative letter-case form of Fata Morgana.

Pronunciation

/ˌfɑːtə mɔːˈɡɑːnə/ /ˌfɑtə mɔɹˈɡɑnə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-Fata Morgana.wav

Word forms

Fata Morgana Fata Morganas

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian fata Morgana (“Morgan le Fay”), from fata (“fairy”) + Morgana (“Morgan”).

Related words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.