hallucinate

verb

hal·​lu·​ci·​nate hə-ˈlü-sə-ˌnāt How to pronounce hallucinate (audio)
hallucinated; hallucinating

transitive verb

1
: to affect with visions or imaginary perceptions
2
: to perceive or experience as a hallucination
hallucinator noun

Examples of hallucinate in a Sentence

The patient may hallucinate if she has a fever.
Recent Examples on the Web Given the propensity of chatbots to hallucinate and hiccup, their use in political contexts has been controversial. Makena Kelly, WIRED, 3 Mar. 2024 Officers determined that the teen appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance and was reportedly hallucinating. The Courier-Journal, 9 Jan. 2024 Pichai acknowledges that Google Gemini, even the advanced version, still risks hallucinating the way Bard did or as other generative AI apps have. Lauren Goode, WIRED, 8 Feb. 2024 Remember that time Laura Dern (might've possibly) hallucinated a vision of Baby Yoda at a basketball game? Joey Nolfi, EW.com, 25 Jan. 2024 By contrast, there is no need to hallucinate visions of prosecutorial power being abused for partisan advantage. Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 13 Jan. 2024 This may be another instance of a lawyer citing fake cases hallucinated by an artificial intelligence tool. Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica, 13 Dec. 2023 Texts about seeing demons and hallucinating people in the house were interpreted as her son playing on the family’s running joke that their 1920s home had a ghost, Crumbley said. Kim Bellware, Washington Post, 6 Feb. 2024 Elliott is hallucinating, so there’s a good chance that all of this is in her head. Peter Debruge, Variety, 21 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hallucinate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Latin hallucinatus, past participle of hallucinari, allucinari to prate, dream, modification of Greek alyein to be distressed, to wander

First Known Use

circa 1834, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of hallucinate was circa 1834

Dictionary Entries Near hallucinate

Cite this Entry

“Hallucinate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hallucinate. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

hallucinate

verb
hal·​lu·​ci·​nate hə-ˈlüs-ə-ˌnāt How to pronounce hallucinate (audio)
hallucinated; hallucinating
: to have hallucinations or experience as a hallucination

Medical Definition

hallucinate

verb
hal·​lu·​ci·​nate hə-ˈlüs-ᵊn-ˌāt How to pronounce hallucinate (audio)
hallucinated; hallucinating

transitive verb

1
: to affect with visions or imaginary perceptions
the patient is not hallucinated
2
: to perceive or experience as a hallucination
may hallucinate monsters or attackersM. J. Horowitz

More from Merriam-Webster on hallucinate

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