reverie

American  

[rev-uh-ree] / ˈrɛv ə ri /

Sometimes revery

noun

• reveries
  plural

1. 

   a state of dreamy meditation or fanciful musing.

   lost in reverie.

   Synonyms:

   brown study, abstraction

2. a daydream.

3. a fantastic, visionary, or impractical idea.

   reveries that will never come to fruition.

4. Music. an instrumental composition of a vague and dreamy character.

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reverie British  

/ ˈrɛvərɪ /

noun

1. an act or state of absent-minded daydreaming

   to fall into a reverie

2. a piece of instrumental music suggestive of a daydream

3. archaic a fanciful or visionary notion; daydream

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• reveries
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of reverie

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, from Old French reverie, resverie, derivative of rever, resver, raver “to speak wildly, wander, dream”; see origin at rave ¹, -ery

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Explanation

If you're relaxing on the beach, dreaming of how you will never have to get up and go back to work, you're engaged in a reverie, or pleasant daydream. There's nothing wrong with reverie, but if you follow its path into English, you'll see how closely it is connected to madness. The noun is from French rêverie, from a Middle French word meaning "wild speech, delirium," from rever "to roam, speak wildly." Middle French rever is also the source of English rave, as in raving mad.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

reverie reveries

Watching the film is akin to trying to explain a night’s reverie to a friend, with specific details just out of reach and fading the faster you try to remember them.

From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2026

This time, the soloist was the stellar emerging pianist Yunchan Lim, who keeps to himself, either lost in dreamy reverie or, like a jumpy teenager, in ferocious attack mode.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026

Breuer has made this his rallying cry as he drives change in the armed forces and tries to jolt Germans from their post-Cold War, end-of-history reverie.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026

He is likely to find this reverie equally fantastical.

From Slate ● May 8, 2025

For a long while, we did not speak, but were all consumed in reverie.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

Just as musical reveries reveal our secret selves, they also point to what we share with others.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

For an opera steeped in raptures and reveries, in which fantasies of romantic bliss compete with premonitions of a pessimistic outcome, Sierra and Bernheim were a dream at the revival’s second performance on Sunday.

From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2024

The Nobel laureate was a poet of unblinking candor and perception who wove classical allusions, philosophical reveries, bittersweet memories and humorous asides into indelible portraits of a fallen and heartrending world.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 3, 2023

Elordi, for his part, gives us a rock ’n’ roll king worthy of those reveries.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2023

But I am letting myself be carried away by reveries which I must now put aside, writes Aronnax.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

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Related Words

• contemplation
• fantasy
• meditation
• trance

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