1
as in illusory
Related Words
Relevance
Dissimilar Words
2
as in delusionary
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of delusional
For my follow-on analysis of details about the OpenAI lawsuit and how AI can foster delusional thinking in humans, see my analysis at the link here.
—
Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 31 May 2026
So, no, not delusional to see competitiveness after a 10th-place finish.
—Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 30 May 2026
But the show’s stroke of genius and individual artistic imprint comes from the decision of having their Michael Scott replacement be a beautiful, delusional Italian woman named Esmerelda Grand.
—Joe Reid, Vulture, 29 May 2026
Comedian Tom Segura mocks 'delusional' California liberals denying LA's decline as city 'desperate' for change.
—FOXNews.com, 27 May 2026
Joined by Owen Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Zach Braff, six comedy kingpins dig deep on delusional auditions, nagging insecurities and bizarre fan interactions.
—Lacey Rose, HollywoodReporter, 20 May 2026
Chatbots have also been found to nurture delusional beliefs and even lead to self-harm.
—Ziv Epstein, Fortune, 16 May 2026
Chatbots have also been found to nurture delusional beliefs and even lead to self-harm.
—Vana Goblot, The Conversation, 13 May 2026
And to be fair to Rivers, many people wondered aloud if Green was being unreasonable, incorrect, delusional or all of the above.
—Zach Harper, New York Times, 7 May 2026
Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 31 May 2026
So, no, not delusional to see competitiveness after a 10th-place finish.
—Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 30 May 2026
But the show’s stroke of genius and individual artistic imprint comes from the decision of having their Michael Scott replacement be a beautiful, delusional Italian woman named Esmerelda Grand.
—Joe Reid, Vulture, 29 May 2026
Comedian Tom Segura mocks 'delusional' California liberals denying LA's decline as city 'desperate' for change.
—FOXNews.com, 27 May 2026
Joined by Owen Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Zach Braff, six comedy kingpins dig deep on delusional auditions, nagging insecurities and bizarre fan interactions.
—Lacey Rose, HollywoodReporter, 20 May 2026
Chatbots have also been found to nurture delusional beliefs and even lead to self-harm.
—Ziv Epstein, Fortune, 16 May 2026
Chatbots have also been found to nurture delusional beliefs and even lead to self-harm.
—Vana Goblot, The Conversation, 13 May 2026
And to be fair to Rivers, many people wondered aloud if Green was being unreasonable, incorrect, delusional or all of the above.
—Zach Harper, New York Times, 7 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for delusional
Adjective
-
Visibility into workflows is partial, and where visibility is incomplete, control is illusory.—
Krupesh Bhat,
Forbes.com,
27 May 2026
-
The idea that transparency offers a route to closure is already proving illusory.—
Jon Allsop,
New Yorker,
24 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
The resulting feature is enigmatic and lightly campy, strange and hallucinatory, taking place in a liminal futuristic city that’s clogged with thick mist and terrorized by a violent serial killer named Leather Man.—
Rachel Handler,
Vulture,
18 May 2026
-
The viewer and characters never quite know what’s transpiring as Lang expertly guides the plot with hallucinatory shots of the crime, a mirror motif, and a journalist-versus-police race to find the culprit.—
Air Mail,
Air Mail,
16 May 2026
Adjective
-
But their tentative affair is secondary to the complex bond between Ali and Jersey, whose troubled connection with Davis helps Ali understand why her mother is so paranoid about her romantic choices.—
Theater Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
30 May 2026
-
Outside of a few such sequences, the new series plays more as paranoid Cold War thriller than hopeful sci-fi saga, and a pretty good one at that.—
Angie Han,
HollywoodReporter,
28 May 2026
Adjective
-
This isn’t callousness or delusive optimism but, rather, a rebellion against the suffocating expectation that the elderly have foreclosed the possibility of joy.—
Hillary Kelly,
The New Yorker,
21 Feb. 2024
-
To separate art from its historical framework is futile, and to reject it in an effort to censor past violence is a delusive act of virtue signaling.—
WSJ,
WSJ,
5 July 2022
Adjective
-
Americans call the sport soccer, the rest of the world calls it football, and therein lies the rub, the disconnection at the heart of the schizophrenic All-American life of Gilbert Chevalier.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
13 May 2026
-
Senior Deputy District Attorney Jeff Moore acknowledged that Fahim was schizophrenic, but argued that the killings were driven by Fahim’s anger at his workplace dispute with Cuomo, not his mental illness.—
Sean Emery,
Oc Register,
14 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Not Pop, not Funk, not surreal or Conceptual, and certainly not Minimal, Nilsson’s work is practically an advertisement for postwar Chicago’s alternative tradition.—
Jeremy Lybarger,
Artforum,
2 June 2026
-
In the wildly surreal satire, Liu plays a Chinese factory worker named Jianhu, who teleports into the Bay Area and starts robbing clothing stores as a middle finger to fashion mogul Christie Smith (Demi Moore), who has made working conditions untenable in China.—
Patrick Ryan,
USA Today,
2 June 2026
Adjective
-
Nilsson admits to suffering from horror vacui—a fear of empty space, which in her case reads less like a neurotic affliction than like compulsive conviviality.—
Jeremy Lybarger,
Artforum,
2 June 2026
-
When a conversation ends without a real answer, when a situation is explained away rather than actually explained, the discomfort is not neurotic or petty.—
Mark Travers,
Forbes.com,
30 May 2026
Adjective
-
Amounts that would have looked imaginary three years ago are now the entry ticket.—
Renana Ashkenazi,
Forbes.com,
26 May 2026
-
But his idealized vision of a past paradise of social cohesion that late-stage capitalism destroyed doesn’t reckon with the snakes that were always there in this imaginary Eden, including a personal betrayal that’s close to home and only comes slithering out in a moment of drunken weakness.—
Leslie Felperin,
HollywoodReporter,
22 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Delusional.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/delusional. Accessed 5 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
