fantasy

1 of 3

noun

fan·​ta·​sy ˈfan-tə-sē  -zē 

variants or less commonly phantasy

plural fantasies

1

: the power or process of creating especially unrealistic or improbable mental images in response to psychological need

an object of fantasy

also : a mental image or a series of mental images (such as a daydream) so created

sexual fantasies

2

: a creation of the imaginative faculty whether expressed or merely conceived: such as

a

: a chimerical or fantastic notion

His plans are pure fantasy.

b

: imaginative fiction featuring especially strange settings and grotesque characters

spent the summer reading fantasy

called also fantasy fiction

c

: fantasia sense 1

the organ fantasy of Johannes Brahms

d

: a fanciful design or invention

a fantasy of delicate tracery

3

: fancy

especially : the free play of creative imagination

4

: caprice

served to fulfill the king's fantasies

5

often attributive : a coin usually not intended for circulation as currency and often issued by a dubious authority (such as a government-in-exile)

6

obsolete : hallucination

fantasy

2 of 3

adjective

: of, relating to, or being a game in which participants create and manage imaginary teams consisting of players from a particular sport and scoring is based on the statistical performances of the actual players

fantasy football/baseball/basketball

playing fantasy sports

The draft is the best part of being part of a fantasy league. … You get to choose the players you like and want to watch and help you win.

—Lawrence Doto

Paula [Knoy] knows how to sacrifice for her fantasy team, even passing up a player like Eli Manning from her favorite New York Giants for a higher scoring quarterback.

—Ruby Thomas

fantasy

3 of 3

verb

fantasied; fantasying; fantasies

transitive + intransitive

: fantasize

fantasies her ideal future

Anyone who has bought a Lotto ticket has probably fantasied about all the amazing places they will go as soon as their numbers come tumbling out of the barrel.

—Conor Pope

While growing up, most Disney fans have fantasied about being their favorite princess, prince or Disney character …

—Carolina Brigagao

Synonyms

Noun

• chimera
• conceit
• daydream
• delusion
• dream
• fancy
• figment
• hallucination
• illusion
• nonentity
• phantasm
• fantasm
• pipe dream
• unreality
• vision

Verb

• conceit [chiefly dialect]
• conceive
• conjure (up)
• dream
• envisage
• envision
• fancy
• fantasize
• feature
• ideate
• image
• imagine
• picture
• see
• vision
• visualize

Examples of fantasy in a Sentence

Noun

His plans are pure fantasy.

He can hardly tell the difference between fantasy and reality.

His plans are just fantasies.

Her fantasy is to be a film star.

His plans are the product of pure fantasy.

I spent my summer reading fantasies.

Verb

She regularly fantasied the moment of celebration after winning the gold medal.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Oh, and actually, Week 17 fantasy football rankings, too. —Jake Ciely, The Athletic, 25 Dec. 2024

This isn’t the first time the artist has obfuscated accounts of his past: Both his memoir and a 2019 documentary directed by Martin Scorsese blur the line between fact and fantasy. —Grant Wong, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Dec. 2024

Adjective

All of these accidents, some less happy than others, led to what is now Hollywood’s biggest non-fantasy action series. —Scott Mendelson, Forbes, 22 June 2021

Martin's initial brilliance was to begin A Song of Ice and Fire as a kind of post-fantasy, where characters remember magic as a bygone possibility. —Darren Franich, EW.com, 17 Apr. 2021

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English fantasie, fantsy, fansey "the imagination as a faculty, mental image produced by this faculty, deluded notion, figment of the imagination, preference directed by caprice rather than reason, liking," borrowed from Anglo-French fantasie "imagination as a faculty, figment of the imagination, dizziness," borrowed from Late Latin phantasia "imagination as a faculty, mental image of something perceived physically, image evoked by a poet or orator, a thing imagined by someone sleeping or ill, delusion," going back to Latin, "imagined situation or experience," borrowed from Greek phantasía "appearance, presentation to consciousness (whether immediate or in memory), image, imagination as a faculty, imagery," noun derivative corresponding to phantázein "to make visible, present to the eye or mind, (middle voice) place before one's mind, picture to oneself, imagine," causative verb from phantós "visible," verbal adjective of phaínō, phaínein (active voice) "to bring to light, cause to appear," and phaínomai, phaínesthai (middle voice) "to become visible, come to light, appear," going back to *phan-i̯e/o-, thematized from Indo-European *b^h-né-h₂-/b^h-n̥-h₂- (whence also Armenian banam "(I) open, reveal"), nasal present from *b^heh₂- "shine, give light, appear," whence Sanskrit bhā́ti "(it) shines, beams," Avestan fra-uuāiti "(it) beams forth"; the verb is allied to nominal derivatives in -n-, as Germanic *bōnjan- (whence Old English bōn "ornament," gebōned "ornamented," Middle Dutch boenen "to scrub, polish"), Old Irish bán "white, fair, bright," Tocharian B peñiyo "splendor," Sanskrit bhānú- "light, beam, brilliance, appearance," Avestan bānu- "beam of light"

Note: Compare fancy entry 2, in Middle English a rare variant of fantasie; the two split from each other in early Modern English, so that fancy entry 2 and fantasy now differ in meaning and construction. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a not infrequent sense, usually with the spelling phantasy, was "the formation of images or representations in direct perception or in memory," more or less following the Greek meaning. — Regarding the relation of *b^heh₂- "shine, give light, appear" to the homonymous base *b^heh₂- "speak, say," see the note at ban entry 1.

Adjective

from attributive use of fantasy entry 1

Verb

Middle English fantasien, fantesien, fancyen "to plan, devise, create, form (an idea), imagine (something false), desire" — more at fancy entry 1

Note: The word was originally a variant of fancy entry 1, which, together with the more recent derivative fantasize, has in large part supplanted it.

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 6

Adjective

1984, in the meaning defined above

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing fantasy

• fantasy football/baseball/basketball
• fantasy league
• fantasy sports
• fantasy team
• flight of fancy/imagination/fantasy
• live in a fantasy world

Kids Definition

fantasy

noun

fan·​ta·​sy

variants also phantasy

ˈfant-ə-sē,

-ə-zē

plural fantasies

1

: imagination sense 3, fancy

2

: something imagined: as

a

: illusion sense 2

b

: fantasia

c

: a work of literature set in an unreal world often with superhuman characters and monsters

Medical Definition

fantasy

1 of 2 noun

fan·​ta·​sy

variants also phantasy

ˈfant-ə-sē  -zē 

plural fantasies

: the power or process of creating especially unrealistic or improbable mental images in response to psychological need

an object of fantasy

also : a mental image or a series of mental images (as a daydream) so created

sexual fantasies of adolescence

fantasy

2 of 2 verb

variants also phantasy

fantasied; fantasying

: fantasize