Phrase guide

trompe l'oeil

noun · 3 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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: trôɴp löy
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈtɹɔ̃p ˈlœj/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈtɹɔmp ˈlɔɪ/
  • General-American: /-ˈleɪ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A genre of painting that exploits human vision to create the illusion that the subject of the painting is real.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A painting of this kind.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, usually

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a painting rendered in such great detail as to deceive the viewer concerning its reality

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: painting, picture

History

Etymology

Borrowed from French trompe-l’œil (literally “deceives the eye”), from trompe (“deceives”, third-person singular present indicative of tromper) + l’ (“the”, prevocalic form of le) + œil (“eye”).

Across languages

Translations

19 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 錯視畫法 /错视画法 — genre of still life painting
  • Finnish: trompe-l’œil — genre of still life painting
  • French: trompe-l'œil — genre of still life painting
  • Italian: trompe l'oeil — genre of still life painting
  • Italian: inganna l'occhio — genre of still life painting
  • Polish: trompe-l'oeil — genre of still life painting
  • Russian: тромплей (tromplej) — genre of still life painting
  • Russian: опти́ческая иллю́зия (optíčeskaja illjúzija) — genre of still life painting
  • Russian: обма́н зре́ния (obmán zrénija) — genre of still life painting
  • Spanish: trampantojo — genre of still life painting
  • Chinese Mandarin: 錯視畫 /错视画 — painting of this kind
  • Finnish: trompe-l’œil — painting of this kind
  • Finnish: optinen illuusio — painting of this kind
  • French: trompe-l'œil — painting of this kind
  • Italian: trompe l'oeil — painting of this kind
  • Italian: inganna l'occhio — painting of this kind
  • Polish: trompe-l'oeil — painting of this kind
  • Russian: тромплей (tromplej) — painting of this kind
  • Spanish: trampantojo — painting of this kind