adjective
Usage
Illusive is sometimes wrongly used where elusive is meant: they fought hard, but victory remained elusive (not illusive )
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of illusory
1590–1600; < Late Latin illūsōrius, equivalent to illūd ( ere ) to mock, ridicule ( see illusion) + -tōrius -tory 1
Explanation
If something is based on something that is not real, you can say it is illusory. Tales of seeing Elvis and Big Foot eating together at McDonalds are probably based on an illusory experience. Although the adjective illusory can describe anything that's based on an illusion, it often has the negative connotation of being deliberately deceptive. Like a bogus investment scheme that seems to make money for investors: any real profits are totally illusory. Or the illusory claims that fad diets work — they only work while you're on the diet, and no one can survive on cabbage soup forever.
Vocabulary lists containing illusory
"Magic and the Brain," Vocabulary from the magazine article
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Holi Festival
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Orphan Train
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He added he intended to "retire" and would not seek to "influence" his successor, but said that "it is illusory to think that one can fade into the background".
From Barron's • Apr. 12, 2026
But these contracts only make sense if you need to squeeze the most income out of your savings, and for those in that situation, full “control” over their money is largely illusory.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 26, 2026
We eagerly drink in the discord because the stakes are illusory, even if the high-strung emotions turn out to be real.
From Salon • Jan. 28, 2026
Toner-Rodgers’s illusory success seems in part thanks to the dynamics he has now upset: an academic culture at MIT where high levels of trust, integrity and rigor are all—for better or worse—assumed.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 22, 2025
Strauss simmered through most of the presentation but erupted when Rabi took a potshot at the illusory concept of a “clean” bomb.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
