delusion means an adamant belief in a falsehood despite incontestable evidence. It carries an Arena rating of 1396, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, delusion ranks #190 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #928 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,864 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #2,627 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
delusion is pronounced /dɪˈl(j)uːʒ(ə)n/.
Why “delusion” is a great word
A fixed, false belief held with absolute conviction despite irrefutable, objective evidence to the contrary. From the Latin dēlūsiō, dēlūsiōn- ("a deceiving"), from dēlūdere ("to mock, deceive"). Unlike an illusion, which is a misperception of a real sensory event, or a hallucination, which is a sensory event with no external trigger, a delusion is a cognitive fortress, a belief impervious to the sensory world. It is the unshakeable certainty that one is being followed by invisible agents, that a television broadcast conveys secret personal messages, or that one's bones have been quietly replaced with glass. It is not the eye or the ear that is fooled, but the very seat of judgment, constructing a private reality where the most implausible fiction is the cornerstone of truth.
Etymology
From Latin dēlūsiō.
noun
- An adamant belief in a falsehood despite incontestable evidence.
- The state of being deluded or misled, or process of deluding somebody.e.g.“It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”
- That which is falsely or delusively believed or propagated; false belief; error in belief.e.g.“Hess, always a muddled man though not so doltish as Rosenberg, flew on his own to Britain under the delusion that he could arrange a peace settlement.” — 1960, William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, LCCN 81101072, page 835:
- A strong belief contrary to evidence.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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