hallucinate
verb
hal·lu·ci·nate
hə-ˈlü-sə-ˌnāt 
hallucinated; hallucinating
1
: to affect with visions or imaginary perceptions
2
: to perceive or experience as a hallucination
: to have hallucinations
Examples of hallucinate in a Sentence
The patient may hallucinate if she has a fever.
Recent Examples on the Web
All models hallucinate—especially the leading frontier models trained on hundreds of billions of parameters.
—
Clint Boulton, Forbes, 31 Oct. 2024
Chatbots like Gemini often hallucinate or fail at simple tasks like reading clocks or counting objects.
—Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 30 Oct. 2024
But as the host had explained during my tasting experience, a person would need to consume bottles worth of Neeley's absinthe in one sitting to hallucinate.
—Maggie Menderski, The Courier-Journal, 29 Oct. 2024
Existing models have a bad habit of hallucinating chemical structures that are bizarre or unworkable, much as ChatGPT hallucinates facts.
—Dhruv Khullar, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for hallucinate 
Clint Boulton, Forbes, 31 Oct. 2024
Chatbots like Gemini often hallucinate or fail at simple tasks like reading clocks or counting objects.
—Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 30 Oct. 2024
But as the host had explained during my tasting experience, a person would need to consume bottles worth of Neeley's absinthe in one sitting to hallucinate.
—Maggie Menderski, The Courier-Journal, 29 Oct. 2024
Existing models have a bad habit of hallucinating chemical structures that are bizarre or unworkable, much as ChatGPT hallucinates facts.
—Dhruv Khullar, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for hallucinate
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hallucinate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near hallucinate
Cite this Entry
“Hallucinate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hallucinate. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
hallucinate
verb
hal·lu·ci·nate
hə-ˈlüs-ə-ˌnāt
hallucinated; hallucinating
: to have hallucinations or experience as a hallucination
Medical Definition
hallucinate
verb
hal·lu·ci·nate
hə-ˈlüs-ᵊn-ˌāt
hallucinated; hallucinating
1
: to affect with visions or imaginary perceptions
the patient is not hallucinated
2
: to perceive or experience as a hallucination
may hallucinate monsters or attackers—M. J. Horowitz
M. J. Horowitz
: to have hallucinations
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