apophenia.

The tendency to find meaningful connections in unrelated or random information.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• apophenia in random data
• an instance of apophenia
• apophenia and coincidence

On the page

The repeated numbers fed his apophenia until even the bus timetable seemed addressed to him.

She wondered whether the pattern was evidence or apophenia wearing the shape of evidence.

Usage notes

Primary category: horror. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.