as in surreal
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Recent Examples of hallucinatory
Such hallucinatory citations are, according to judges and lawyers, troubling at a variety of levels, not the least of which is their threat to the integrity of the judicial system.
—
Edmund H. Mahony, Hartford Courant, 1 Mar. 2026
And there’s still almost an hour of film left to go, in which everyone, including the audience, is in a sort of hallucinatory, post traumatic daze — but even the relative comfort of that won’t last long.
—ABC News, 18 Feb. 2026
Convinced that her sadistic ceremonies will transform him into a god, Clara draws Brighton into a hallucinatory descent into faith, flesh, and the sublime.
—Alex Ritman, Variety, 16 Feb. 2026
The script leans heavily on exposition — internal monologues, disembodied intercom voices, and hallucinatory flashbacks — to communicate lore that might have resonated more powerfully through action or environment.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 29 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for hallucinatory
Edmund H. Mahony, Hartford Courant, 1 Mar. 2026
And there’s still almost an hour of film left to go, in which everyone, including the audience, is in a sort of hallucinatory, post traumatic daze — but even the relative comfort of that won’t last long.
—ABC News, 18 Feb. 2026
Convinced that her sadistic ceremonies will transform him into a god, Clara draws Brighton into a hallucinatory descent into faith, flesh, and the sublime.
—Alex Ritman, Variety, 16 Feb. 2026
The script leans heavily on exposition — internal monologues, disembodied intercom voices, and hallucinatory flashbacks — to communicate lore that might have resonated more powerfully through action or environment.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 29 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for hallucinatory
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hallucinatory
Adjective
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The movie is a surreal story about the life of a hero (voiced by professional rapper Ace Cool) who, in his youth, becomes a J-pop idol.—
Wilson Chapman,
IndieWire,
21 Apr. 2026
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Phish’s penchant for weirdness and surreal stuff wasn’t left behind for these shows, either (after all, a band equally influenced by Rush, the Grateful Dead, Talking Heads, and Frank Zappa wouldn’t likely be caged into anything resembling ordinary).—
Jeff Miller,
Rolling Stone,
20 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Right around that time, the Venice Film Festival saw Mamoru Hosoda’s anime epic Scarlet, in which the Danish prince became an ass-kicking Danish princess consigned to a hellish and phantasmagoric underworld.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
14 Apr. 2026
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The action is punctuated by flash-frame collages that bring earlier and later observations together in a tumble of associations and hint at the drama’s mystical, phantasmagorical essence.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
6 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Its sense of one of the most famous buildings in world history is romantic, fantasy filled and illusory.—
Christopher Arnott,
Hartford Courant,
19 Apr. 2026
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Physicists treat the volume of the black hole as illusory, like a hologram.—
Shalma Wegsman,
Quanta Magazine,
30 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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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
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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
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And so the super, super devoted fans really do know each other and really are jockeying with each other for position in a way that feels both real and imaginary.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
9 Apr. 2026
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No borders and a thin blue line Viewing the Earth from space, White highlights, drives home that the borders that mark our maps are largely imaginary.—
Jackie Wattles,
CNN Money,
8 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Among the many obsessive bloggers and observers who cover the industry, the idea was mostly treated as so improbable, even delusional, as to be not even worth taking seriously.—
The Editorial Board,
Chicago Tribune,
15 Apr. 2026
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Some incels use the term in a derogatory fashion, believing those who aspire to ascension are delusional.—
David Faris,
TheWeek,
8 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Investigators allege Gonzalez wrote checks to herself from HOA accounts over an extended period and concealed the thefts by creating fictitious invoices and false ledger entries.—
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten,
FOXNews.com,
8 Apr. 2026
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One requires election records to be maintained for 22 months, while the other prohibits procuring, casting or tabulating false, fictitious or fraudulent ballots.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
29 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Gemmill echoed the sentiment, emphasizing that the priority is maintaining the realism of the show, which centers on a fictional hospital in Pittsburgh.—
Tribune News Service,
Baltimore Sun,
17 Apr. 2026
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Then again, an especially good fictional song can come to feel more real than its story of origin.—
Mitch Therieau,
New Yorker,
17 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Hallucinatory.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hallucinatory. Accessed 23 Apr. 2026.
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