Word.ws English Dictionary

Ebbinghaus illusion

Ebbinghaus illusion noun: an optical illusion whereby a disk appears smaller if surrounded by larger disks than if by smaller.

ebbinghaus illusion: an optical illusion whereby a disk appears smaller if surrounded by larger disks than if by smaller
Image: Phrood, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Ebbinghaus illusion (plural Ebbinghaus illusions)

  1. An optical illusion whereby a disk appears smaller if surrounded by larger disks than if by smaller.

Forms of Ebbinghaus illusion

pluralEbbinghaus illusions

Origin of Ebbinghaus illusion

Named after its discoverer, the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909).

Questions about Ebbinghaus illusion

What does Ebbinghaus illusion mean?
Ebbinghaus illusion means an optical illusion whereby a disk appears smaller if surrounded by larger disks than if by smaller.
What part of speech is Ebbinghaus illusion?
Ebbinghaus illusion is a noun.
What is the plural of Ebbinghaus illusion?
The plural of Ebbinghaus illusion is Ebbinghaus illusions.

Words near Ebbinghaus illusion in the dictionary

  1. Ebbetts
  2. Ebbie
  3. ebbing
  4. ebbing and flowing
  5. Ebbinghaus
  6. Ebbinghaus illusion
  7. Ebbinghaus illusions
  8. ebbings
  9. ebbless
  10. ebbs
  11. ebbs and flows

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Ebbinghaus illusion (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Ebbinghaus illusion.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ebbinghaus_illusion. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.