optical delusion

noun

A vision or image that is deceptive or misleading, such as an optical illusion or a trick of the light.

Meanings

nounoptical delusion (plural optical delusions)

plural optical delusions

  1. datedA vision or image that is deceptive or misleading, such as an optical illusion or a trick of the light.
    1 more example

    I rubbed my eyes, thinking that I was the victim of some hallucination, or that the refraction from the intense light produced an optical delusion; and, as I did so, the flaming pillar slowly twisted and thundered off whithersoever it passes to in the bowels of the great earth, leaving Ayesha standing where it had been.

    1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
Cite this entry
APA

optical delusion. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/optical%20delusion

MLA

“optical delusion.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/optical%20delusion. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “optical delusion,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/optical%20delusion.

Source: optical delusion on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.