fata morgana • \fah-tuh-mor-GAH-nuh\ • (noun)
: mirage

Example sentence:
"Then, suddenly—like a fata morgana rising out of the desert clouds—houses, trees, and people materialized." (Joseph Wechsberg, The New Yorker, November 1952)

Did you know?
"Fata Morgana" is the Italian name for Morgan le Fay (meaning "Morgan the Fairy"), the fairy sorceress of medieval legends. This half-sister of the legendary King Arthur is sometimes portrayed as living in a palace under water and is said to have had a number of magical powers, with which she caused a great deal of trouble. Among her powers, say some versions of the legends, was the ability to create mirages. She has been blamed for causing complex mirages over bodies of water, especially in the Strait of Messina. Today we know that such optical illusions are really caused by atmospheric conditions, but we still sometimes use "fata morgana" as a synonym of "mirage."