mirages

noun

plural of mirage
as in daydreams
something that comes from or exists only in the mind and is not real He thought he saw water up ahead but it was just a mirage.

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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 mirages These wall drawings—at the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, in 2024; the Art Institute of Chicago, in 2025; and Houston’s Menil Collection, in 2025—were all temporary, like frolicsome mirages. — Jeremy Lybarger, Artforum, 2 June 2026 The film opens with real mirages filmed near Aswan in Egypt, where atmospheric conditions produce optical distortions. — Lise Pedersen, Variety, 20 Apr. 2026 Multimodal models see ‘mirages’ This past week has brought yet more evidence of how weird these models are. — Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 31 Mar. 2026 Bat away mirages and stick to what’s really in your viewfinder. — Magi Helena, Dallas Morning News, 16 Feb. 2026 At the frontier edge of astronomy, tantalizing new observations have a tendency to be mirages. — Ross Andersen, The Atlantic, 24 Sep. 2025 But inside, slabs of colored glass, hunks of polished resin, and sundry material experiments gleam like mirages in the sunlight that streams in from the ceiling and windows. — Hannah Martin, Architectural Digest, 4 Sep. 2025 The Great Plain stretches beneath poetic skies where herds graze and mirages dance—while thermal springs bubble in ornate bathhouses like Széchenyi—their steam rising through vaulted ceilings. — Lewis Nunn, Forbes.com, 14 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mirages
  1. daydreams
  2. dreams
  3. visions
Noun
  • And amidst the momentum of reverie, there’s the line ‘Blink at the light and hope to survive,’ because daydreams in a fascist state can be scary too.
    — Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 23 June 2026
  • One-touch passing, feinting and ripping hard shots into a tattered net, each is super-charged by vivid daydreams of glory on the international stage.
    — Jason Motlagh, Rolling Stone, 22 June 2026
Definition of daydreams
Noun
  • That’s what happens when a party and its voters stop seriously competing and instead indulge their passions and fever dreams.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 19 July 2026
  • Its warble seemed the embodiment of dreams, that melted meeting point between memories and fantasy.
    — Sam Goldner, Pitchfork, 19 July 2026
Definition of dreams
Noun
  • Jupiter in Leo will form an inspiring trine to Neptune retrograde in Aries while also opposing Pluto retrograde in Aquarius, creating a push-and-pull between our visions for the future and the inevitable transformation at play.
    — Valerie Mesa, PEOPLE, 20 July 2026
  • America at 250 seems stuck in a miasma of rival populisms that offer irreconcilable visions for curing what ails our country.
    — Will Marshall, Washington Post, 18 July 2026
Definition of visions

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Cite this Entry

“Mirages.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mirages. Accessed 22 Jul. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on mirages

Nglish: Translation of mirages for Spanish Speakers

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