What does hallucinatory mean?
Hallucinatory is an adjective describing perceptions, experiences, images, or effects that resemble hallucinations. It is commonly used for the vivid sensations of a hallucination, as in “hallucinatory imagery,” and it can also describe a substance or condition that produces such experiences. In ordinary usage the word carries a clinical or psychological tone, although artists and writers may use it more broadly for imagery that seems unreal, dreamlike, or deceptive. It is not simply a synonym for “false”: a hallucination is a perceptual experience occurring without a corresponding external stimulus, whereas an illusion involves a real but misperceived stimulus. Hallucinatory is therefore especially useful when the emphasis falls on the unusual character of the experience or on its power to make something absent seem present. The word is common in medical, psychiatric, literary, and discussions of psychedelic experience, and it helps distinguish the nature of a perception without asserting that the person experiencing it is necessarily unwell.
adjectiveRelating to, resembling, or characteristic of a hallucination. It can also describe something that causes hallucinations.
- Relating to or characteristic of a hallucination.
- Causing or producing hallucinations.
"The fever left her in a hallucinatory state, imagining voices and figures that were not there."
"The painting is filled with hallucinatory colors that seem to shift as the light changes."
"The researchers studied the drug's hallucinatory effects in carefully monitored volunteers."
Sometimes the missing object is the point: hallucinatory describes a vivid experience that can make nothing seem uncannily present.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does hallucinatory come from?
The English adjective was formed from hallucination with the suffix -atory, meaning “pertaining to” or “connected with.” Hallucination comes from Latin, ultimately from hallucinari, “to wander in the mind,” while the closely related English words hallucinate, hallucinogen, and hallucinosis continue the same Latin stem.
Related word forms
How hallucinatory is actually used
The term is relatively formal and is especially common in medical, psychiatric, literary, and discussions of psychedelic experience. It should not be used as a general synonym for “false” or “unreal,” since its defining association is perception without a corresponding external stimulus.
Easily confused with hallucinatory
A hallucination is the perceptual experience itself, whereas hallucinatory is an adjective describing such an experience or something that produces it.