Illusory

//ɪˈluː.sə.ɹiː// adj

adj ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Resulting from an illusion; deceptive, imaginary, unreal.

    "The invalidity of a cognition is the otherwiseness of its object, and is known by a sublating cognition. The illusory cognition of silver knows illusory silver, but does not know its otherwiseness."

Adjective
  1. 1
    based on or having the nature of an illusion wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
illusiveaberrantabroadadriftair builtair-built

Example

More examples

"The feelings of "love at first sight" and "faithful unto death" are unrealistic; this sort of unrealistic and illusory feeling is not what we need."

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French illusorie (modern French illusoire), derived from Latin illūsōrius (“mocking, ironical”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.