Word.ws English Dictionary

pareidolia

Syllables: par·ei·do·lia/ˌpæɹ.iˈdoʊ.li.ə/UK/ˌpæɹ.aɪˈdəʊ.li.ə/

pareidolia noun: the tendency to interpret a vague stimulus as something known to the observer, such as interpreting marks on Mars as canals, seeing shapes in clouds, or hearing hidden messages in music.

pareidolia: the tendency to interpret a vague stimulus as something known to the observer, such as interpreting...
Image: Viking 1, NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

pareidolia (countable and uncountable, plural pareidolias)

  1. The tendency to interpret a vague stimulus as something known to the observer, such as interpreting marks on Mars as canals, seeing shapes in clouds, or hearing hidden messages in music.
    • This last is called by Dr. Kahlbaum, changing hallucination, partial hallucination, perception of secondary images, or pareidolia.1868 July, John Sibbald, The British Journal of Psychiatry, volume 13, page 238
    • Pareidolia underlies several forms of divination.1993, Raymond Moody, Paul Perry, Reunions: Visionary Encounters with Departed Loved Ones, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN, page 13

pareidolia meaning in Arabic

pareidolia in Arabic

tendency to interpret vague stimuli as something familiar
بَارِيدُولِيَا bārīdūliyā

Examples of pareidolia in a sentence

  • Pareidolias aren't solely limited to images.2006, Steve W. Martin, “Choosing Your Battles”, in Heavy Hitter Selling: How Successful Salespeople Use Language and Intuition to Persuade...
  • Pareidolia is a state of mind where a vague or unclear image is perceived to be something recognizable, regardless of whether it's something you expect to see.2010, Rick Emmer, “Nessies of the New World”, in Loch Ness Monster: Fact or Fiction? (Creature Scene Investigation), New York, N.Y....

Forms of pareidolia

pluralpareidolias

Origin of pareidolia

Borrowed from German Pareidolie, constructed from Ancient Greek παρα- (para-, “alongside”) + εἴδωλον (eídōlon, “image”) + -ία (-ía). By surface analysis, par- + eidolia.

Words formed from pareidolia

Words that rhyme with pareidolia

Questions about pareidolia

What does pareidolia mean?
Pareidolia means the tendency to interpret a vague stimulus as something known to the observer, such as interpreting marks on Mars as canals, seeing shapes in clouds, or hearing hidden messages in music.
What is pareidolia in Arabic?
Pareidolia in Arabic is بَارِيدُولِيَا (bārīdūliyā). See Pareidolia meaning in Arabic.
How do you use pareidolia in a sentence?
Pareidolias aren't solely limited to images.
What part of speech is pareidolia?
Pareidolia is a noun.
How do you pronounce pareidolia?
Pareidolia is pronounced /ˌpæɹ.aɪˈdəʊ.li.ə/ (UK).
What is the plural of pareidolia?
The plural of pareidolia is pareidolias.

Words near pareidolia in the dictionary

  1. pareiasaurian
  2. pareiasaurians
  3. pareiasaurid
  4. pareiasaurids
  5. pareiasaurs
  6. pareidolia
  7. pareidolias
  8. pareidolic
  9. pareil
  10. pareils
  11. pareira

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pareidolia (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pareidolia.ogg.

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