café wall illusion

noun

An optical illusion in which the parallel straight dividing lines between staggered rows with alternating dark and light bricks appear to be sloped rather than parallel.

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Meanings

nouncafé wall illusion (plural café wall illusions)

plural café wall illusions · alternative café-wall illusion

  1. An optical illusion in which the parallel straight dividing lines between staggered rows with alternating dark and light bricks appear to be sloped rather than parallel.

Origin

Described under its current name in 1973 by Richard Gregory, according to whom this effect was observed by a member of his laboratory, Steve Simpson, in the tiles of the wall of a café at the bottom of St Michael’s Hill, Bristol.

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Cite this entry
APA

café wall illusion. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/caf%C3%A9%20wall%20illusion

MLA

“café wall illusion.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/caf%C3%A9%20wall%20illusion. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “café wall illusion,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/caf%C3%A9%20wall%20illusion.

Source: café wall illusion on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.