verb
hallucinate
huh-LOO-sih-nayt/həˈluːsɪneɪt/
To experience an invented perception as though it were real.
The person hallucinates a butterfly and reaches into the empty space.
Etymology
Latin alucinari described wandering in the mind or dreaming. The English sense narrows this mental wandering to perceiving something that is not actually present.
In context
he was starting to hallucinate he would see boats and it immediately evaporate and he knew death was coming soon
More examples
- During his high fever, he hallucinated insects crawling across the ceiling.
- Severe sleep deprivation can cause people to hallucinate.
- The chatbot sometimes hallucinates facts and presents them confidently.
Forms
hallucinate · hallucinates · hallucinated · hallucinating
hallucination noun — A perception of something not actually present.
hallucinatory adjective — Involving or resembling perceptions of nonexistent things.