Meaning & use

delusional

adjective·Advanced

Believing things that are not true, especially due to a mental condition, or unrealistically optimistic.

See it in a sentence

He seemed delusional, insisting the failed business was actually thriving.

Some fans were delusional about their team's chances of winning the championship.

A note on using this word

Clinically, delusional describes a fixed false belief resistant to evidence; casually, it's often used loosely to mean simply unrealistic or overconfident.

Words with a similar meaning

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

rationalrealistic

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