mirage
English
Etymology
Borrowed from French mirage.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mɪˈɹɑːʒ/, /mɪˈɹɑːd͡ʒ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɑːʒ
Noun
mirage (plural mirages)
- An optical phenomenon in which light is refracted through a layer of hot air close to the ground, often giving the illusion of a body of water.
- Hypernym: optical illusion
- Hyponym: Fata Morgana
- (figuratively) An illusion.
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), OCLC 630079698, page 68:
- I remember hearing, that in the East the clear and azure waters seem to flow before the weary and parched traveller; yet a little further, and on he urges his weary way, but in vain—the fair stream is a delusion. Even thus happiness is the mirage which leads us over the desert of life, ever fated to end in deceit and disappointment.
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Translations
an optical phenomenon
|
illusion — see illusion
Verb
mirage (third-person singular simple present mirages, present participle miraging, simple past and past participle miraged)
- (transitive) To cause to appear as or like a mirage.
- 1915, E. Phillips Oppenheim, Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo:
- All that had been in his mind seemed suddenly miraged before him—the removal of Hunterleys, his own wife's failing health.
- 1901, A. E. W. Mason, Ensign Knightley and Other Stories:
- The vision of a salon was miraged before her, with herself in the middle deftly manipulating the destinies of a nation.
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Further reading
mirage on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
- Margie, gamier, imager, maigre
French
Etymology
mirer + -age.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mi.ʁaʒ/
Audio (Paris) (file)
Noun
mirage m (plural mirages)
- mirage
Descendants
- → Catalan: miratge
- → English: mirage
- → Estonian: miraaž
- → Galician: miraxe
- → Italian: miraggio
- → Polish: miraż
- → Portuguese: miragem
- → Romanian: miraj
- → Russian: мира́ж (miráž)
- → Spanish: miraje
Further reading
- “mirage”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
- émigra
- gémira
- germai
- maigre