Phrase guide

optical illusion

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

An image that is visually deceptive or misleading.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

an optical phenomenon that results in a false or deceptive visual impression

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: optical phenomenon

Narrower terms: apparent motion, motion, apparent movement, movement, mirage

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

40 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: optiese illusie — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Arabic: خداع بصري — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Asturian: ilusión óptica — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Catalan: il·lusió òptica — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Chinese Mandarin: 視覺效果 /视觉效果 (shìjué xiàoguǒ) — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Chinese Mandarin: 視錯覺 /视错觉 (shìcuòjué) — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Czech: optický klam — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Dutch: gezichtsbedrog — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Finnish: optinen harha — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Finnish: näköharha — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • French: illusion d'optique — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • German: optische Täuschung — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Greek: οφθαλμαπάτη (ofthalmapáti) — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Gujarati: દૃષ્ટિભ્રમ (dŕṣṭibhram) — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Hebrew: אשליה אופטית (ashlaya optit) — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Hungarian: optikai csalódás — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Icelandic: sjónvilla — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Italian: illusione ottica — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Japanese: 錯視 (sakushi) — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Japanese: 目の錯覚 (me no sakkaku) — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Korean: 착시 (chaksi) — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Korean: 착시현상 (chaksihyeonsang) — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Korean: 착시효과 (chaksihyogwa) — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Korean: 눈의 착각 (nun-ui chakgak) — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Luxembourgish: optesch Illusioun — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Luxembourgish: optesch Täuschung — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Norwegian: optisk illusjon — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Norwegian: optisk bedrag — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Norwegian: synsbedrag — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Occitan: illusion d'optica — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Polish: złudzenie optyczne — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Portuguese: ilusão de óptica — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Portuguese: ilusão de ótica — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Russian: опти́ческая иллю́зия (optíčeskaja illjúzija) — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Slovene: optična iluzija — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Slovene: optična prevara — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Spanish: ilusión óptica — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Swedish: synvilla — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Tagalog: pangas — image that is visually deceptive or misleading
  • Ukrainian: опти́чна ілю́зія (optýčna iljúzija) — image that is visually deceptive or misleading