hallucinating

Meanings

1. 1verbintransitivemedical

   Seeing, hearing or feeling things that are not really there, often because of illness, fever, drugs or extreme tiredness.

   Grammar: -ing form of hallucinate; no object: he is hallucinating.

   Patterns

   • be hallucinating
   • start hallucinating

   The patient was hallucinating because of a high fever.

   After three sleepless nights, he began hallucinating shapes in the corner.

   She thought she was hallucinating when she saw a deer in the hallway.

2. 2verbintransitivecomputinginformal

   Producing statements that sound confident but are false or invented, said especially of an AI program.

   Grammar: Informal technology sense: the chatbot is hallucinating.

   Patterns

   • be hallucinating

   The chatbot was hallucinating a source that does not exist.

   The model keeps hallucinating facts about the company.

   Check the answer carefully, since the assistant may be hallucinating.

3. 3verbintransitiveinformalhumorous

   Believing you have seen or heard something that is clearly unlikely, used playfully.

   Grammar: Informal; often in questions: Am I hallucinating?

   Am I hallucinating, or did the bus arrive on time?

   I thought I was hallucinating when I saw my teacher at the concert.

   Are you hallucinating? That car is a toy.

Common combinations

start hallucinating

He started hallucinating from dehydration.

must be hallucinating

I must be hallucinating; that cannot be real.

hallucinating about

She was hallucinating about spiders crawling on the walls.

hallucinating facts

The software kept hallucinating facts in its replies.

hallucinating from lack of sleep

The driver was hallucinating from lack of sleep.

Synonyms and how they differ

imagining things

Imagining things is milder and informal, while hallucinating suggests a stronger perception of something not there.

seeing things

Seeing things is casual and mostly visual, whereas hallucinating covers all senses.

delirious

Delirious describes being confused with fever, while hallucinating is about the false perceptions.

fabricating

Fabricating means deliberately making up false information, while a hallucinating AI does so unintentionally.

Opposites

Word family

hallucinate verb

to see or hear things that are not there

hallucination noun

something perceived that is not real

hallucinatory adjective

like or causing hallucinations

hallucinogen noun

a drug that causes hallucinations

hallucinogenic adjective

causing hallucinations

Commonly confused: hallucinating or illusion?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “hallucinating”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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