trompe-l'oeil

1. 1.

   creating the illusion of seeing reality

   “the visual deception of trompe-l'oeil art”

   Synonymseye-deceiving

   Similarunreal

Questions about trompe-l'oeil

What does trompe-l'oeil mean?

trompe-l'oeil means "creating the illusion of seeing reality".

How many syllables are in trompe-l'oeil?

trompe-l'oeil has 4 syllables: trom-pe--l'o-eil. The stress falls on "pe-".

What is another word for trompe-l'oeil?

Close synonyms include eye-deceiving. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

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.