optical illusion

noun

plural optical illusions

: a misleading image presented to the vision

Zebras look like optical illusions to me. Which are they—black with white stripes or white with black stripes?

—Al Robinson

The sun, moon, and planets circle above the terrestrial plane in the region of the equator. Their apparent rising and setting is an optical illusion caused by atmospheric refraction …

—Ranger Rick

Examples of optical illusion in a Sentence

The closer building looks larger than the farther one, but it's just an optical illusion. The two buildings are actually the same size.

Recent Examples on the Web

Striking a pose with her hands on her hips, the White Lotus actress—who last attended the VMAs in 2024 in an optical illusion hooded corset gown—showed off two-inch-long curved nude nails and encased each finger in molten silver half-moon rings. — Lara Walsh, InStyle, 27 Sep. 2026

Still, Wilson Jones doesn’t think the theory that the ancient Greeks were attempting an optical illusion should be ditched entirely. — Emma Gometz, Scientific American, 22 Sep. 2026

Day and night aren't exactly 12 hours long on the day of the equinox because the Earth's atmosphere refracts, or bends, light in an optical illusion that brings more daylight than there really is. — Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA Today, 22 Sep. 2026

This optical illusion, known as a ‘parallax’, often leads to viewers reaching the wrong conclusion and amateur VARs on social media drawing the wrong lines. — Graham Scott, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1763, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for optical illusion

• immunodiffusion
• allusion
• collusion
• conclusion
• confusion
• contusion
• delusion
• diffusion
• effusion
• exclusion
• extrusion
• inclusion

Kids Definition

optical illusion

noun

: illusion sense 1

Medical Definition

optical illusion

noun

: visual perception of a real object in such a way as to misinterpret its actual nature