mirage
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An optical phenomenon in which light is refracted through a layer of hot air close to the ground.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
merahzhSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
mɚˈɑʒ
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
An optical phenomenon in which light is refracted through a layer of hot air close to the ground, often giving the illusion of a body of water.
An optical illusion in which atmospheric refraction by a layer of hot air distorts or inverts reflections of distant objects
verb
transitive
To cause to appear as or like a mirage.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An optical phenomenon in which light is refracted through a layer of hot air close to the ground, often giving the illusion of a body of water.
Used this way, mirage 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.
More ways to use mirage
- “On the hot desert road, the mirage made it look like water was ahead.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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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.