illusion
Pluralillusions
- 1Something that appears to be one thing but is in fact another.
Distance and haze can produce the illusion that two ridges are a single mountain.
The set designer used forced perspective to create an illusion of vast depth on a shallow stage.
Similarimpression, appearance, semblance, mirage
Oppositereality
Note
The broad sense the others narrow from comes through Old French from Latin illūsiō, built on lūdere, "to play, mock, trick." At root, an illusion is something that plays upon you. It displaced the native Old English dwimmer. Illusions are typically caused by something, like shadows or, as The Flaming Lips sang in 2002, the earth's rotation. They can also be created on purpose, as with fruit flavors made from additives.
- 2
- 3A trick performed by a magician to make something impossible appear to happen.
Her closing illusion involved sawing an assistant cleanly in half.
The performer spent two years perfecting a single illusion for the new tour.
Note
Here the Latin play survives most literally: the lūdere behind the general "false appearance" sense meant to trick as well as to play. Magicians use the word for a whole staged effect rather than for the sleight of hand inside it. It is countable, so a performer perfects one illusion and then moves on to another.
- 4The condition of being deceived or led to believe what is not true.
The glossy campaign kept voters in a state of illusion about the plan's real cost.
Some people prefer the comfort of illusion to the pain of knowing the facts.
Similardelusion, deception, fantasy
Note
The difference from the mistaken-belief sense is grammatical. You have an illusion that something is so, with an article and a that-clause. In this sense, though, the word is uncountable, so people live in illusion or in a state of illusion. The countable noun names one particular false belief, while this one names the condition of being deceived.
Practice
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Origin
From Old French illusion, from Latin illūsiō, from illūdere, formed from in- ("at, upon") plus lūdere ("to play, mock, trick"). It displaced the native Old English word dwimmer.