trompe l'oeil
/ˈtɹɔ̃p ˈlœj/US/ˈtɹɔmp ˈlɔɪ/
trompe l'oeil noun: a genre of painting that exploits human vision to create the illusion that the subject of the painting is real.
Noun
trompe l'oeil (usually uncountable, plural trompe l'oeil or trompe l'oeils)
- A genre of painting that exploits human vision to create the illusion that the subject of the painting is real.
- It looked like a private apartment, and yet it seemed also to be a place of business. It was furnished in decorative style with plastic, trick art objects hanging on the walls, geometrical forms of the trompe l'oeil type that intrigue business people. They are peculiarly vulnerable to art...1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 74
- In 2008 they moved to New York, where they made waves at the 2010 Whitney Biennial with their “Fold” paintings, spray-painted canvases that were flat but seemed crumpled, a trompe l’oeil trick that reflected the artist’s enduring preoccupation with interdimensionality.2023 March 16, Julia Felsenthal, “An Artist Whose Work Might (Possibly) Have Its Own Free Will”, in The New York Times Style Magazine
- A painting of this kind.
Synonyms of trompe l'oeil
Forms of trompe l'oeil
| plural | trompe l'oeil |
|---|---|
| plural | trompe l'oeils |
| alternative form | trompe l’œil |
| alternative form | trompe-l’oeil |
| alternative form | trompe-l’œil |
Origin of trompe l'oeil
Borrowed from French trompe-l’œil (literally “deceives the eye”), from trompe (“deceives”, third-person singular present indicative of tromper) + l’ (“the”, prevocalic form of le) + œil (“eye”).
Questions about trompe l'oeil
- What does trompe l'oeil mean?
- Trompe l'oeil means a genre of painting that exploits human vision to create the illusion that the subject of the painting is real.
- What part of speech is trompe l'oeil?
- Trompe l'oeil is a noun.
- How do you pronounce trompe l'oeil?
- Trompe l'oeil is pronounced /ˈtɹɔ̃p ˈlœj/ (UK).
- What is the plural of trompe l'oeil?
- The plural of trompe l'oeil is trompe l'oeil.
Words near trompe l'oeil in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: trompe l'oeil (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-trompe l'oeil.wav.
Cite this entry: “trompe l'oeil.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trompe_l%27oeil. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.