hallucination

[huh-loo-suh-ney-shuh n] /həˌlu səˈneɪ ʃən/
noun
1.
a sensory experience of something that does not exist outside the mind, caused by various physical and mental disorders, or by reaction to certain toxic substances, and usually manifested as visual or auditory images.
2.
the sensation caused by a hallucinatory condition or the object or scene visualized.
3.
a false notion, belief, or impression; illusion; delusion.
Origin
1640-50; < Latin hallūcinātiōn- (stem of (h)allūcinātiō) a wandering of the mind. See hallucinate, -ion
Related forms
hallucinational, hallucinative
[huh-loo-suh-ney-tiv, -nuh-tiv] /həˈlu səˌneɪ tɪv, -nə tɪv/ (Show IPA), adjective
nonhallucination, noun
Can be confused
allusion, delusion, elusion, hallucination, illusion (see synonym study at illusion)
Synonyms
1. phantasm, aberration. See illusion.
Examples from the web for hallucination
  • Is this the dream, or is this the hallucination that one is doing well.
  • Reality is a fact, for humans, reality is self-induced hallucination.
  • The uncertainty about what is hallucination and what is real exemplifies the world of the psychotic.
  • His symptoms were chiefly auditory hallucination and paranoid ideation.
  • The hallucination that he could jump back to camp is a typical manifestation of that ailment.
  • He said it was not a hallucination from an oxygen starved brain.
  • Once you're exposed to that, you never recover from that layer of hallucination.
  • Housing prices appear to be determined by collective hallucination.
  • Walk a few hundred yards southeast along the coast and face what appears to be an hallucination.
  • At its best it's a free-flowing hallucination that allows the audience the freedom to make of the images what they will.
British Dictionary definitions for hallucination

hallucination

/həˌluːsɪˈneɪʃən/
noun
1.
the alleged perception of an object when no object is present, occurring under hypnosis, in some mental disorders, etc
Derived Forms
hallucinational, hallucinative, hallucinatory, adjective
Word Origin and History for hallucination
n.

in the pathological/psychological sense of "seeing or hearing something which is not there," 1640s, from Latin hallucinationem (nominative hallucinatio), from past participle stem of hallucinari (see hallucinate). Hallucination is distinct from illusion in not necessarily involving a false belief. Related: Hallucinations.

hallucination in Medicine

hallucination hal·lu·ci·na·tion (hə-lōō'sə-nā'shən)
n.

  1. False or distorted perception of objects or events with a compelling sense of their reality, usually resulting from a mental disorder or drug.

  2. The objects or events so perceived.

hal·lu'ci·nate' v.
hal·lu'ci·na'tion·al or hal·lu'ci·na'tive adj.
hallucination in Culture

hallucination definition


A false perception that appears to be real, as when, for example, a man dying of thirst in a desert thinks that he sees a lake. (See also delusion.)