as in saw
to see or sense something or someone that is not really there; to have hallucinations
The patient may hallucinate if she has a fever.
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Recent Examples of hallucinated
Last year, a Los Angeles attorney was fined for submitting a filing full of legal citations that were hallucinated by ChatGPT.
—
James Queally, Los Angeles Times, 18 Mar. 2026
The report was riddled with fake citations that appeared to be hallucinated by AI, which the White House attributed to formatting errors; HHS then corrected the report by removing the false citations and swapping in new references.
—Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 13 Feb. 2026
Sonatype’s research found that GPT-5 hallucinated nearly 28% of component versions and, without real-time intelligence, even recommended malware.
—Tony Bradley, Forbes.com, 28 Jan. 2026
The weather was accurate but the towns were hallucinated by the computer program.
—Krista Kafer, Denver Post, 25 Jan. 2026
And that’s assuming ChatGPT hasn’t hallucinated anything.
—ArsTechnica, 30 Oct. 2025
Regardless, the guides require reading comprehension skills and don’t offer random, hallucinated, or uncited thoughts about the text.
—Joelle Renstrom
august 28, Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2025
Zane Wach, 14, hallucinated and walked off a cliff while climbing Mount Whitney in Northern California on June 10.
—Abigail Adams, People.com, 18 Aug. 2025
For example, the o3 and o4 reasoning models that came out in April hallucinated more than their predecessors, TechCrunch reports.
—Emily Forlini, PC Magazine, 8 Aug. 2025
James Queally, Los Angeles Times, 18 Mar. 2026
The report was riddled with fake citations that appeared to be hallucinated by AI, which the White House attributed to formatting errors; HHS then corrected the report by removing the false citations and swapping in new references.
—Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 13 Feb. 2026
Sonatype’s research found that GPT-5 hallucinated nearly 28% of component versions and, without real-time intelligence, even recommended malware.
—Tony Bradley, Forbes.com, 28 Jan. 2026
The weather was accurate but the towns were hallucinated by the computer program.
—Krista Kafer, Denver Post, 25 Jan. 2026
And that’s assuming ChatGPT hasn’t hallucinated anything.
—ArsTechnica, 30 Oct. 2025
Regardless, the guides require reading comprehension skills and don’t offer random, hallucinated, or uncited thoughts about the text.
—Joelle Renstrom
august 28, Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2025
Zane Wach, 14, hallucinated and walked off a cliff while climbing Mount Whitney in Northern California on June 10.
—Abigail Adams, People.com, 18 Aug. 2025
For example, the o3 and o4 reasoning models that came out in April hallucinated more than their predecessors, TechCrunch reports.
—Emily Forlini, PC Magazine, 8 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hallucinated
Verb
-
Moving a blade back and forth to try to saw biscuits apart will make their layers stick (and ruin the rise).—
Ella Quittner,
Bon Appetit Magazine,
20 Mar. 2026
-
Ruggeri says that, in comparison to saw palmetto, which gets far more attention.—
Adam Hurly,
Robb Report,
19 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
Grunhaus, Popescu, and Rohrlich imagined jamming as a kind of super-entanglement that could interfere with entangled particles.—
Matt von Hippel,
Quanta Magazine,
17 Apr. 2026
-
They were imagined by elite writers.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
15 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Officials dreamed of a futuristic span serving people crossing from Sacramento’s burgeoning Railyards development and beautifying a riverfront.—
Ishani Desai,
Sacbee.com,
15 Apr. 2026
-
The profits from Snow White were used to build Walt’s long-dreamt-of animation studio, organized on the modern Taylorist factory model.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
14 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Zbur said future expansion would be based on its success in Santa Monica, and that such expansion is already contemplated.—
Andre Mouchard,
Oc Register,
19 Apr. 2026
-
As Jackson County officials contemplated what to call the state-of-the-art twin stadiums due to open in the early 1970s, one obvious name emerged.—
Kansas City Star,
Kansas City Star,
16 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
For years the sisters had fantasized, half-seriously, about having their own YouTube channel.—
Scot Paltrow,
Los Angeles Times,
30 Mar. 2026
-
The new sound became a global fad, even in the locales that exotica artists fantasized about.—
H.D. Angel,
Pitchfork,
7 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
The philosopher Biggie Smalls once pondered the nature of dangerously escalating rivalries.—
Daniel Fienberg,
HollywoodReporter,
16 Apr. 2026
-
Standing alone in a Swedish laundromat, Alfie Whiteman set a 10-second timer on his camera and pondered what to do next.—
Ben Church,
CNN Money,
16 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Every vessel was visualized clearly.—
Mrigakshi Dixit,
Interesting Engineering,
23 Mar. 2026
-
The story follows struggling creatives navigating debt, eviction threats and a precarious gig economy, visualized in Riley’s inventive style — from looming piles of eviction notices to characters literally struggling up and down steep inclines that mirror the instability of their lives.—
Deborah Sengupta Stith,
Austin American Statesman,
17 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Hallucinated.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hallucinated. Accessed 23 Apr. 2026.
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