Meaning & use
pareidolia
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountabletechnical
The habit of the mind of seeing a meaningful shape, usually a face, in something random like clouds or a stain.
Grammar: Not used with a: pareidolia explains why we see faces in clouds.
Patterns
- pareidolia in something
- a case of pareidolia
Seeing a smiling face in the front of a car is a form of pareidolia.
Pareidolia explains why people claim to see animals in the clouds.
The scientist suggested the image on the toast was simply pareidolia.
Common combinations
- visual pareidolia
- Visual pareidolia makes a pair of electrical sockets look like a face.
- a case of pareidolia
- The rock that resembled a head was a case of pareidolia.
- pareidolia effect
- The pareidolia effect is strongest when the shape is dim or unclear.
- experience pareidolia
- Most of us experience pareidolia without noticing.
- auditory pareidolia
- Hearing a voice in the static is auditory pareidolia.
Synonyms and how they differ
- illusion
- An illusion is any false perception, while pareidolia is specifically finding a familiar pattern in random input.
- apophenia
- Apophenia is the broader habit of seeing connections in unrelated things, while pareidolia refers mainly to shapes and sounds.
Word family
- pareidolic adjective
- relating to pareidolia
Commonly confused: pareidolia or hallucination?
pareidolia vs hallucination
A hallucination is perceiving something that is not there at all, while pareidolia is reading a pattern into something that really is there.
Practice
Seeing a friendly face in the pattern of a wooden door is an example of ______.
Choose one answer.
Pareidolia is seeing a familiar pattern in random shapes. A hallucination would involve seeing something that is not there at all.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pareidolia”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.