fantasia
Americannoun
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Music.
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a composition in fanciful or irregular form or style.
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a potpourri of well-known airs arranged with interludes and florid embellishments.
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something considered to be unreal, weird, exotic, or grotesque.
noun
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any musical composition of a free or improvisatory nature
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a potpourri of popular tunes woven freely into a loosely bound composition
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another word for fancy
Etymology
Origin of fantasia
From Italian, dating back to 1715–25; see origin at fantasy
Explanation
A fantasia is a partially improvised, free flowing piece of music. Familiar tunes are often included in a fantasia. You might hear a fantasia at the symphony, scattered with well-known bits of folk songs. Most fantasias are a bit unpredictable, since they tend to use improvisation and an unstructured style, with classical fantasias sometimes mixing fast sections with much slower ones. Fantasia is also the title of the third animated Disney film, made in 1940 and featuring cartoons set to eight pieces of classical music. The Greek root of both fantasia and fantasy is phantasia — "imagination or appearance."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This flowed into the rhapsodic lyricism of late Schubert, his substantial Fantasia in F Minor.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 1, 2025
While the mysterious objects are not believed to be hobbyist drones, Fantasia said it remains unclear what they are.
From BBC • Dec. 11, 2024
But it was Fantasia Barrino who stole the show, racing through an electric performance of Tina Turner's Proud Mary before walking into the audience and shimmying with Dua Lipa.
From BBC • Feb. 5, 2024
The telecast peaked with 18.25 million viewers during the In-Memoriam segment, with performances by Stevie Wonder, Annie Lennox, Jon Batiste and Fantasia Barrino.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 5, 2024
There were warm chocolate chip cookies and my favorite video, Fantasia.
From "Three Little Words: A Memoir" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
