will-o'-the-wisp

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for will-o'-the-wisp
Noun
  • While Manchester United’s stadium development is still a pipe dream, in need of financing and planning permission, their new stadium is a tangible reality already.
    Patrick Boyland, The Athletic, 21 Mar. 2025
  • At this point, a 90-win season looks like a pipe dream.
    Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post, 19 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • But critics claim PBMs don’t always find the best deals, and the savings are often a mirage.
    Julia Manchester, The Hill, 25 Mar. 2025
  • Gurriel will have to earn his keep by showing in April’s real games that the exhibitions of March were not a mirage.
    Kevin Acee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • Several sources say ignis fatuus, a spark of swamp gas, is the likely cause of the strange light.
    Fox News, Fox News, 3 Mar. 2023
  • The story also helped explain ignis fatuus, a natural phenomenon that occurs in marshlands and bogs—such as those in Ireland’s countryside—producing flickering lights as gases from decomposing organic matter combust.
    National Geographic, National Geographic, 27 Oct. 2020
Noun
  • The entries are a mixture of sense memory, adolescent embarrassment, nostalgic fashions and foods, daydreams, and anything else that falls through the sieve of Brainard’s disarmingly casual syntax.
    David S. Wallace, The New Yorker, 19 Mar. 2025
  • Panda Bear: Sinister Grift [Domino] Noah Lennox brings the sunshine—and, for the first time on a Panda Bear album, nearly all of his Animal Collective bandmates—on Sinister Grift, an album of spongy psychedelic daydreams and melodies that yearn and enchant.
    Madison Bloom, Pitchfork, 28 Feb. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

Podcast

Cite this Entry

“Will-o'-the-wisp.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/will-o%27-the-wisp. Accessed 2 Apr. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on will-o'-the-wisp

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!