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ILLUSION
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An illusory feat; considered magical by naive observers
Synonyms:
conjuration; conjuring trick; deception; illusion; legerdemain; magic; magic trick; thaumaturgy; trick
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("illusion" is a kind of...):
performance (the act of presenting a play or a piece of music or other entertainment)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "illusion"):
card trick (a trick performed with playing cards)
prestidigitation; sleight of hand (manual dexterity in the execution of tricks)
Derivation:
illusionist (someone who performs magic tricks to amuse an audience)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The act of deluding; deception by creating illusory ideas
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("illusion" is a kind of...):
deceit; deception; dissembling; dissimulation (the act of deceiving)
Derivation:
illusional; illusionary (marked by or producing illusion)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Something many people believe that is false
Example:
they have the illusion that I am very wealthy
Synonyms:
fancy; fantasy; illusion; phantasy
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("illusion" is a kind of...):
misconception (an incorrect conception)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "illusion"):
bubble (an impracticable and illusory idea)
ignis fatuus; will-o'-the-wisp (an illusion that misleads)
wishful thinking (the illusion that what you wish for is actually true)
Derivation:
illusional (marked by or producing illusion)
illusory (based on or having the nature of an illusion)
Sense 4
Meaning:
An erroneous mental representation
Synonyms:
illusion; semblance
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("illusion" is a kind of...):
appearance (a mental representation)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "illusion"):
apparition; fantasm; phantasm; phantasma; phantom; shadow (something existing in perception only)
irradiation (the apparent enlargement of a bright object when viewed against a dark background)
phantom limb (the illusion that a limb still exists after it has been amputated)
Derivation:
illusional (marked by or producing illusion)
Context examples:
A false sensory perception in the absence of an external stimulus, as distinct from an illusion which is a misperception of an external stimulus.
(Hallucination, NCI Thesaurus)
One theory is that in the context of in-person actors’ faces, the LPS lighting created a kind of optical illusion.
(Rosy health and sickly green: color associations play robust role in reading faces, National Institutes of Health)
A disorder characterized by the acute and sudden development of confusion, illusions, movement changes, inattentiveness, agitation, and hallucinations.
(Delirium, NCI Thesaurus/CTCAE)
His long, bloodless countenance was so thin and so white that it gave the strangest illusion of transparency.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I was a little startled myself, for it seemed for an instant as if the stranger had great eyes like burning flames; but a second look dispelled the illusion.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
The dominant colour was grey, and yet there was to it a faint reddish hue—a hue that was baffling, that appeared and disappeared, that was more like an illusion of the vision, now grey, distinctly grey, and again giving hints and glints of a vague redness of colour not classifiable in terms of ordinary experience.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
And he would forget the books he had opened and the world that had proved an illusion.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
It is a feeling, a sentiment, a something based upon illusion and not a product of the intellect at all.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
The theory follows that the illusion occurred because our brains are wired to try to understand what we see by factoring context into our perception.
(Rosy health and sickly green: color associations play robust role in reading faces, National Institutes of Health)
Turning as from a fallen idol, she made other discoveries which rapidly dispelled her romantic illusions.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
