Adding to the alluded/eluded and allusive/elusive quandary is the illusion/allusion Wacky Word pair! Again, looking at roots and affixes can be a great help.
Let’s start with allusion—since we had alluded yesterday. (Yes, you read that right—the roots are the same!)
1. Allusion (allude)
a. Related to ludicrous: Hint—“What he alluded to was ludicrous!”
b. Related to allusion—“He made an allusion to our previous conversation.”
c. If you remember the allude/ludicrous (What he alluded to was ludicrous!), you will also remember allusion—allusion is something you allude to.
i. Allude is the verb—“What did he allude to?”
ii. Allusion* is the noun—The thing—“What was his allusion to your situation?”
2. Illusion
a. Related to illustrate—See that root?
i. Illustration is a picture
ii. Illusion is an abstract picture
b. Used to mean a facsimile or something that appears different than it is
i. “The ride gives you the illusion that you are on a mountain.”
ii. “They used Kleenexes to give you the illusion of fabric.”
iii. “Her success is just an illusion.”
c. Illusion is also related to hallucination—seeing things that are not really there!
*Note: A more advanced vocabulary technique that you will learn this year on LL 365 is “illustrated” in suffixes—tion and sion generally signify a word is a noun.
