Word.ws English Dictionary

Kanizsa triangle

Kanizsa triangle noun: an optical illusion in which a number of spatially separated fragments give the illusory impression of the contours of a triangle.

kanizsa triangle: an optical illusion in which a number of spatially separated fragments give the illusory impression...
Image: Fibonacci, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Kanizsa triangle (plural Kanizsa triangles)

  1. An optical illusion in which a number of spatially separated fragments give the illusory impression of the contours of a triangle.
    • It is called a Kanizsa triangle, after the Italian psychologist Gaetano Kanizsa, who created it in 1955.2019, Bill Bryson, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Black Swan (2020), page 67

Forms of Kanizsa triangle

pluralKanizsa triangles

Origin of Kanizsa triangle

Named after Gaetano Kanizsa.

Questions about Kanizsa triangle

What does Kanizsa triangle mean?
Kanizsa triangle means an optical illusion in which a number of spatially separated fragments give the illusory impression of the contours of a triangle.
What part of speech is Kanizsa triangle?
Kanizsa triangle is a noun.
What is the plural of Kanizsa triangle?
The plural of Kanizsa triangle is Kanizsa triangles.

Words near Kanizsa triangle in the dictionary

  1. Kaniut
  2. Kaniuts
  3. Kaniv
  4. Kaniva
  5. kaniwa
  6. Kanizsa triangle
  7. Kanizsa triangles
  8. Kanjeevaram
  9. kanji
  10. kanjified
  11. kanjifies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Kanizsa triangle (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Kanizsa triangle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kanizsa_triangle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.