delusion
noun
Simple meaning
An erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihloozhuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈluʒən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A false belief that is resistant to confrontation with actual facts.
A fixed, false belief, that will not change, despite evidence to the contrary.
That which is falsely or delusively believed or propagated; false belief; error in belief.
psychology
An erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary
“Despite clear evidence otherwise, his delusion that strangers controlled his thoughts persisted.”
The act of deluding; deception by creating illusory ideas
The state of being deluded or misled, or process of deluding somebody.
Word at a Glance
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A false belief that is resistant to confrontation with actual facts.
Used this way, delusion is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A delusion (common in paranoia) that you are much greater and more powerful and influential than you really are.
A delusion (common in paranoia) that others are out to get you and frustrate and embarrass you or inflict suffering on you.
The delusion that things (or everything, including the self) do not exist.
A delusion concerning the body image or parts of the body.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Any mental disorder in which delusions play a significant role.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.