trompe l'oeil

1. 1.

   a painting rendered in such great detail as to deceive the viewer concerning its reality

   Broaderpainting

Questions about trompe l'oeil

What does trompe l'oeil mean?

trompe l'oeil means "a painting rendered in such great detail as to deceive the viewer concerning its reality".

Is trompe l'oeil a common word?

trompe l'oeil is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.