Adjacent Words

Illusion definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ILLU'SION, n. s as z. [L. illusio, from illudo, to illude.] Deceptive appearance; false show, by which a person is or may be deceived, or his expectations disappointed; mockery.
Ye soft illusions, dear deceits, arise!

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an erroneous mental representation [syn: illusion, semblance]
2: something many people believe that is false; "they have the illusion that I am very wealthy" [syn: illusion, fantasy, phantasy, fancy]
3: the act of deluding; deception by creating illusory ideas [syn: delusion, illusion, head game]
4: an illusory feat; considered magical by naive observers [syn: magic trick, conjuring trick, trick, magic, legerdemain, conjuration, thaumaturgy, illusion, deception]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin illusion-, illusio, from Latin, action of mocking, from illudere to mock at, from in- + ludere to play, mock — more at ludicrous Date: 14th century 1. a. obsolete the action of deceiving b. (1) the state or fact of being intellectually deceived or misled ; misapprehension (2) an instance of such deception 2. a. (1) a misleading image presented to the vision (2) something that deceives or misleads intellectually b. (1) perception of something objectively existing in such a way as to cause misinterpretation of its actual nature (2) hallucination 1 (3) a pattern capable of reversible perspective 3. a fine plain transparent bobbinet or tulle usually made of silk and used for veils, trimmings, and dresses Synonyms: see delusion • illusional adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 deception, delusion. 2 a misapprehension of the true state of affairs. 3 a the faulty perception of an external object. b an instance of this. 4 a figment of the imagination. 5 = optical illusion. Phrases and idioms: be under the illusion (foll. by that + clause) believe mistakenly. Derivatives: illusional adj. Etymology: ME f. F f. L illusio -onis f. illudere mock (as IN-(2), ludere lus- play)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Illusion Il*lu"sion, n. [F. illusion, L. illusio, fr. illudere, illusum, to illude. See Illude.] 1. An unreal image presented to the bodily or mental vision; a deceptive appearance; a false show; mockery; hallucination. To cheat the eye with blear illusions. --Milton. 2. Hence: Anything agreeably fascinating and charning; enchantment; witchery; glamour. Ye soft illusions, dear deceits, arise! --Pope. 3. (Physiol.) A sensation originated by some external object, but so modified as in any way to lead to an erroneous perception; as when the rolling of a wagon is mistaken for thunder. Note: Some modern writers distinguish between an illusion and hallucination, regarding the former as originating with some external object, and the latter as having no objective occasion whatever. 4. A plain, delicate lace, usually of silk, used for veils, scarfs, dresses, etc. Syn: Delusion; mockery; deception; chimera; fallacy. See Delusion. Illusion, Delusion. Illusion refers particularly to errors of the sense; delusion to false hopes or deceptions of the mind. An optical deception is an illusion; a false opinion is a delusion. --E. Edwards.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(illusions) 1. An illusion is a false idea or belief. No one really has any illusions about winning the war. = delusion N-VAR: oft N that, N of n/-ing 2. An illusion is something that appears to exist or be a particular thing but does not actually exist or is in reality something else. Floor-to-ceiling windows can give the illusion of extra height... N-COUNT: oft N of n/-ing

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Delusion, hallucination, deception, error, fallacy, mockery, fantasy, phantasm, chimera, false show.

Moby Thesaurus

aberrancy, aberration, air, airy nothing, apparition, appearance, bamboozlement, bedevilment, befooling, bewitchery, bewitchment, bluffing, brainchild, bubble, calculated deception, captivation, chimera, circumvention, conning, deceiving, deception, deceptiveness, defectiveness, defrauding, delirium, delusion, delusiveness, deviancy, distortion, dream, dupery, eidolon, enchantment, enmeshment, ensnarement, entanglement, entrancement, entrapment, errancy, erroneousness, error, ether, fallaciousness, fallacy, falseness, falsity, fancy, fantasque, fantasy, fascination, fault, faultiness, fiction, figment, flaw, flawedness, flimflam, flimflammery, fond illusion, fooling, hallucination, hamartia, heresy, heterodoxy, hoodwinking, idle fancy, ignis fatuus, imagery, imagination, imagining, insubstantial image, invention, kidding, maggot, make-believe, maya, mirage, misapplication, misapprehension, misconception, misconstruction, misdoing, misfeasance, misinterpretation, misjudgment, mist, mistake, myth, obsession, outwitting, overreaching, peccancy, perversion, phantasm, phantasmagoria, phantom, pipe, pipe dream, possession, putting on, rainbow, romance, seeming, self-contradiction, self-deception, semblance, shadow, sick fancy, sin, sinfulness, smoke, snow job, song and dance, spirit, spoofery, spoofing, subterfuge, swindling, thick-coming fancies, thin air, trickiness, tricking, trip, unorthodoxy, untrueness, untruth, untruthfulness, vapor, victimization, vision, whim, whimsy, wildest dreams, willful misconception, wishful thinking, witchery, wrong, wrongness