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auditory hallucination

auditory hallucination

3 7.9
Hearing voices or sounds that are not there
  • noun
  • /ɔːˈdɪtəri həlˌuːsɪˈneɪʃən/
  • Specialized
translation icon : alucinación auditiva
  • After years of treatment, she still dealt with auditory hallucinations, sometimes hearing whispers that weren't there.
  • experience auditory hallucinations

He had, he had daily auditory hallucinations, he had paranoid delusions.

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Examples

  • Hayami-san and Kayama-san were both experiencing auditory hallucinations.

  • Whatever this was, it was not like any auditory hallucination she had ever heard of.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • I suppose auditory hallucination would be the best way to describe them.

    Blog text (10)
  • I'd say it was an auditory hallucination of some kind.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • He reported no medication side effects, and he had experienced no auditory hallucinations for approximately 15 years.

    Academic text (2005)
  • They are the most common symptom in schizophrenia, where patients usually experience auditory hallucinations, often hearing voices that speak to them in direct communication or in the form of running commentary.

    Academic text (1999)
  • Auditory hallucinations, or false perceptions of hearing voices, are a treatment-resistant symptom of schizophrenia.

    Academic text (2016)
  • The patient reported experiencing auditory hallucinations, hearing voices that no one else could hear.

  • Many individuals with schizophrenia struggle with auditory hallucinations, which often manifest as confusing or distressing voices.

Synonyms

hallucination
vsauditory hallucination
140 7.5

A false experience in which you see or hear something not there

is limited to hearing sounds without an external source
acousma
vsauditory hallucination
  • Specialized
9.9

Hearing strange sounds that are not words and have no real source

includes hearing voices as well as noises rather than only nonverbal sounds

Surface Forms

Morphology

auditory + hallucination

The meaning 'hearing sounds that are not present' is directly derivable from combining 'auditory' (related to hearing) with 'hallucination' (perceiving sensations that aren't real). This adjectival composition follows regular English semantics and has clear parallels in other languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Auditory hallucination is made from the words auditory, meaning 'hearing', and hallucination, meaning a 'sense that seems real but is not'. Imagine hearing a voice in an empty room; that's why it means 'hearing sounds that are not present'.