uncanny valley.

A hypothesized drop in comfort or affinity when an artificial representation looks almost, but not convincingly, human.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• the uncanny valley
• an uncanny-valley effect

On the page

The face entered the uncanny valley when its smile moved a fraction too late.

She changed the design to avoid the uncanny valley rather than making it still more lifelike.

Usage notes

Primary category: horror. Forms: Singular uncanny valley; plural uncanny valleys for distinct modeled effects. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.