MIRAGE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mirage mean? 

• MIRAGE (noun)
  The noun MIRAGE has 2 senses:

1. an optical illusion in which atmospheric refraction by a layer of hot air distorts or inverts reflections of distant objects

2. something illusory and unattainable

  Familiarity information: MIRAGE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MIRAGE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An optical illusion in which atmospheric refraction by a layer of hot air distorts or inverts reflections of distant objects

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Hypernyms ("mirage" is a kind of...):

optical illusion (an optical phenomenon that results in a false or deceptive visual impression)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "mirage"):

fata morgana (a mirage in the Strait of Messina (attributed to the Arthurian sorcerer Morgan le Fay))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Something illusory and unattainable

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("mirage" is a kind of...):

misconception (an incorrect conception)

 Context examples 

Most unusual, he thought, a vision or a mirage—more likely a vision, a trick of his disordered mind.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

A man who has found the path to the hidden temple but has not followed it; who has, perhaps, caught glimpses of the temple and striven afterward to convince himself that it was only a mirage of foliage.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And through the swaying, palpitant vision, as through a fairy mirage, he stared at the real woman, sitting there and talking of literature and art. He listened as well, but he stared, unconscious of the fixity of his gaze or of the fact that all that was essentially masculine in his nature was shining in his eyes.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)