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Figment vs Mirage - What's the difference?

figment | mirage |

As nouns the difference between figment and mirage

is that figment is a fabrication, fantasy, invention; something fictitious while mirage is an optical phenomenon in which light is refracted through a layer of hot air close to the ground, giving the appearance of there being refuge in the distance.

As a verb mirage is

to cause to appear as or like a mirage.

figment

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A fabrication, fantasy, invention; something fictitious.
  • * 1989 (Sep 30), R. McNeill Alexander, "Biomechanics in the days before Newton", New Scientist volume 123, No. 1684, page 59
    • He had not seen sarcomeres: these segments were a figment of his imagination.
  • * 1999 , Martin Gardner, The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener , page 12
    • Perhaps, dear reader, you are only a figment in the dream of some god, as Sherlock Holmes was a figment in the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  • * 2004 , Daniel C. Noel, In a Wayward Mood: Selected Writings 1969-2002 , page 256
    • Jung's implication here is clearly that one should try to forget that this is only a figment or fantasy, merely make-believe—or perhaps that one should forget the “only,” the “merely”—and indeed take the fantasy seriously as a reality.

    Usage notes

    * Often used in the form "a figment of [someone's] imagination".

    Related terms

    * feign * fiction * fictional * fictitious

    References

    * *

    mirage

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An optical phenomenon in which light is refracted through a layer of hot air close to the ground, giving the appearance of there being refuge in the distance.
  • (figuratively) An illusion.

    • See also

    * (Mirage) * fata morgana * illusion * optical illusion

    Verb

    (mirag)
  • To cause to appear as or like a mirage.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1915, author=E. Phillips Oppenheim, title=Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=All that had been in his mind seemed suddenly miraged before him—the removal of Hunterleys, his own wife's failing health. }}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1901, author=A. E. W. Mason, title=Ensign Knightley and Other Stories, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=The vision of a salon was miraged before her, with herself in the middle deftly manipulating the destinies of a nation. }}

    Anagrams

    * ----