What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Elusive vs Delusive - What's the difference?

elusive | delusive |

As adjectives the difference between elusive and delusive

is that elusive is evading capture, comprehension or remembrance while delusive is producing delusions.

elusive

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Evading capture, comprehension or remembrance.
    • The elusive criminal was arrested
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1910 , author=Jack London , title=Lost Face , chapter=6 citation , passage=Charley chased the elusive idea through all the nooks and crannies of his drowning consciousness.}}
  • Rarely seen.
  • *
  • Difficult to describe.
    • A precise definition of diarrhea is elusive (Robbin's pathology, 8th ed)

    Related terms

    * (l)

    delusive

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Producing delusions.
  • Delusional.
  • Inappropriate to reality; forming part of a delusion.
  • * 1849 , Charlotte Brontë, Shirley
    • It seemed calculated to suggest ideas she had no intention to suggest — ideas delusive and disturbing.
  • * {{quote-Don Quixote, passage=I opened my eyes, I rubbed them, and found I was not asleep but thoroughly awake. Nevertheless, I felt my head and breast to satisfy myself whether it was I myself who was there or some empty delusive phantom; but touch, feeling, the collected thoughts that passed through my mind, all convinced me that I was the same then and there that I am this moment.
    • , volume=2 , chapter=XXIII}}