Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use illusion in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun

Illusion means a distortion of sensory perception where real stimuli lead to a false or misleading impression of reality. Example: “We saw what looked like a tiger among the trees, but it was an illusion caused by the shadows of the branches.”

Examples of illusion by meaning

nounA distortion of sensory perception where real stimuli lead to a false or misleading impression of reality.

  • We saw what looked like a tiger among the trees, but it was an illusion caused by the shadows of the branches.
  • Using artificial additives, scientists can create the illusion of fruit flavours in food.
  • You realize the sun don't go down it's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round.2002, “Do You Realize??”, performed by The Flaming Lips

nounA misapprehension; a belief in something that is in fact not true.

  • Jane has this illusion that John is in love with her.

More sentences with illusion

  • Practical lighting can help sell the illusion that the film is a real situation.From the entry practical
  • The magician had the audience on a string with his fascinating illusions.From the entry on a string
  • The cell phone in my best friend's kangaroo pocket created the illusion that he was happy to see Jasmine.From the entry happy to see someone
  • The magus is manipulative, mendacious, a master of illusions and mind games.2026, Sebastian Mallaby, chapter 2, in The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind and the Quest for Superintelligence, Penguin, →ISBN. From the entry mind game
  • We only notice this striking fact about perception when we experience the stopped-clock illusion.2024, Adrian Bardon, “Idealism and Experience”, in A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford…. From the entry stopped-clock illusion
  • There can even be an increased experience of the stopped-clock illusion.2024, Yusuf Kaplan, Jenni Nowlan, “Relationships in the Emerging Organisational Context”, in Kathryn Waddington, Bryan Bonaparte, editors…. From the entry stopped-clock illusion
  • Therefore, clinging to this illusion is not only pointless but potentially harmful.2022 August 6, Heather Hutchinson, “I'm Just a Rhetorical Dirtbag, Baby.”, in MacEwan University Student EJournal, volume 6, number 1, →DOI. From the entry dirtbag left
  • In contrast to cosplay’s imitation of life, DisneyBounding offers a unique kind of illusion of life.2022, Dori S. Koehler, “I Am Disney Bound: Costuming as Psycho-Spiritual Practice”, in Priscilla Hobbs, editor, Interpreting and…. From the entry DisneyBounding
  • I knew, a form of illusion known as ophthalmophobia — fear of the eye.2022, Arthur B. Reeve, The Social Gangster. From the entry ophthalmophobia
  • Hume's Fork would belong to the category of sophistry and illusion.2020, Jean-Etienne Joullié, Robert Spillane, The Philosophical Foundations of Management Thought, Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 105. From the entry Hume's fork
  • Using veneer on MDF can also create the illusion of solid wood.2019 September 20, “MDF vs HDF: Understanding Differences and Best Uses in Woodworking”, in Forest Plywood. From the entry MDF
  • Consider the conundrum of hiding panty lines by creating the illusion of underwearlessness.2019, Natasha Stagg, Sleeveless: Fashion, Image, Media, New York 2011–2019, page 123. From the entry underwearlessness
  • What these circumstances do is to give me something like illusions, not unclear perceptions.2015, Guy Sircello ·, New Theory of Beauty, page 133. From the entry unclearly
  • "Just imagine if the love of your life turned out to be an illusion.2015, Nina George, translated by Simon Pare, The Little Paris Bookshop, page 209. From the entry kenophobia
  • Perhaps, beyond the lands of shadow, it will be exposed as merely a Screwtaped illusion.2013, Joseph Pearce, C. S. Lewis and the Catholic Church, →ISBN. From the entry screwtape
  • Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.2013, Edwin Hung, Philosophy of Science Complete, →ISBN. From the entry antimetaphysicalism
  • In this naiveté and forgetting, Nietzsche finds the triumph of the Apollinian illusion.2012, Robert R. Williams, Tragedy, Recognition, and the Death of God, page 146. From the entry Apollinian
  • No illusions had he of a chastened German spirit, a clarified German mind, an unbrutalized German heart.2008, Zane Grey, The Desert of Wheat. From the entry unbrutalized
  • The author is less inclined than Jung to treat freedom as an ideological illusion or false consciousness.2007, Roy E. Allen, Human Ecology Economics, →ISBN, page 187. From the entry false consciousness
  • Let’s take this piffling sitting-down dance and turn it into a stagewide multicolored illusion!2007 July 27, Alastair Macaulay, “I May Be Writhing on the Floor, but on Screen I’m Soaring Like Superman”, in New York Times. From the entry stagewide
  • It is only devastating because we are invested in the illusion of foreverness.2006, Fran Harris, Will the Real You Please Stand Up?, page 166. From the entry foreverness
  • (on the sanitary properties of kitchen knives) They give you the illusion of safety.2003, Alton Brown, “Fit to Be Tied”, in Good Eats. From the entry spooge
  • People are conditioned to behave as they do, so freedom is an illusion.2001, Alexander Crombie, An Essay on Philosophical Necessity, page number not shown. From the entry necessarianism
  • One can deride the playful, game-like character of cybernavigation, the illusion of the virtual world.2000, Rem Koolhaas, et al: Mutations. From the entry cybernavigation
  • I finally abandoned any lingering illusions I had had that Ministry work was a soft touch.1998, James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small, →ISBN, page 266. From the entry soft touch
  • They contribute to the illusion that we have a cultural democracy, a culture of our own choice.1992, Michael Parenti, “The Myth of Cultural Democracy”, in Make-Believe Media, St. Martin’s Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 207. From the entry pseudochoice
  • Actually, he isnt’t; a flying buddy maneuvered his machine into the shot, just to create the illusion.1990 September, “Helicopter section”, in Model Airplane News, page 91. From the entry heli
  • It means the greatest illusion on earth." So Maya it was from then on - Maya Walter.1988, Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington, Picasso, Creator and Destroyer, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 240. From the entry maya
  • While the Insurrectionalists did seek aid from various sectors, their reputation as moderates was an illusion.1988, Thomas P. Anderson, Politics in Central America, →ISBN. From the entry insurrectionalist
  • This illusion has to be an underlying factor in the anticapital bias of the tax law.1975, United States. Congress. House. Ways and Means Committee, Tax Reform (Administration and Public Witnesses), Public Hearings... (page…. From the entry anticapital
  • Bradly, having done with pretences and illusions, now dispiritedly accepted the inevitable.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 209. From the entry dispiritedly
  • Mere neglect usually but adds illusion to the element of the picturesque.1933 December, Daniel O. Brewster, “Monograph Six: The Cottages of Cape Ann—Part I”, in Pencil Points: An Illustrated Journal for the…. From the entry plumbered
  • He had prepared such a fine pedestal for her, draped her in so many beautiful illusions.[1921?], John Cournos, “Circe”, in The Wall, London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.; New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, chapter…. From the entry doubting
  • Hurtling through the air that evening in seat 10C, I read the US House committee’s Max investigation, a disruptor of illusions.2025 March 11, Lauren Smiley, “The Worst 7 Years in Boeing’s History—and the Man Who Won’t Stop Fighting for Answers. Fatal crashes. A…. From the entry they
  • Flames like flightmare algae hidden within the enclaves of a kaleidoscope illusion, a gateway into the god's secret treasure chest.2020, Gaston D. Cox, Aurea Mediocritas: A Book of Short Stories. From the entry flightmare
  • Whereas the practice of eyebombing may not suit everybody’s taste, the anthropomorphic illusions that result are remarkably powerful.2020 May 1, Susana Martinez-Conde, Stephen L. Macknik, “Eyebomb Your Brain”, in Scientific American, archived from the original on 25 Apr…. From the entry eyebombing

Meaning of illusion

  1. noun A distortion of sensory perception where real stimuli lead to a false or misleading impression of reality.
  2. noun A misapprehension; a belief in something that is in fact not true.
  3. noun A magician’s trick.

Full definition of illusion

Questions about illusion in a sentence

How do you use illusion in a sentence?
Illusion is used as a noun. For example: “We saw what looked like a tiger among the trees, but it was an illusion caused by the shadows of the branches.”
What is a short sentence with illusion?
“Hume's Fork would belong to the category of sophistry and illusion.”
What does illusion mean?
Illusion means a distortion of sensory perception where real stimuli lead to a false or misleading impression of reality.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: illusion (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use illusion in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/illusion. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.