hallucination
hallucination Lexical Profile
hallucination Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A sensory experience of something that does not exist outside the mind, typically caused by a neurological or psychiatric condition, high fever, or psychoactive drugs.
"Severe sleep deprivation can occasionally trigger auditory or visual hallucinations in healthy individuals."
A plausible-sounding but false, fabricated, or nonsensical response generated by an artificial intelligence model.
"Researchers are developing new verification techniques to reduce the rate of hallucinations in large language models."
An unfounded, mistaken, or delusional belief or impression.
"The investor's belief that the failing company would double its value overnight proved to be a costly hallucination."
Word Nuance & Usage
In clinical and general usage, a 'hallucination' is a sensory perception that occurs in the complete absence of an external stimulus, whereas an 'illusion' is a misinterpretation of an actual external stimulus, and a 'delusion' is a fixed false belief rather than a sensory experience.
• Rhymes for hallucination
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the mid-17th century from Late Latin hallucinatio, from the verb hallucinari ('to wander in the mind, talk nonsense, or dream'), which is related to Ancient Greek alyein ('to wander in mind or be distraught').