dreamer
Americannoun
-
a person who dreams.
The dream provides insights into the interior life of the dreamer, or so say many psychotherapists.
-
a person who lives in a world of fantasy; one who is impractical and unrealistic.
The phrase "economically illiterate" has long been used to smear leftists as unrealistic utopian dreamers.
-
a person whose ideas or projects are considered audacious or highly speculative; visionary.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was considered a dreamer—and what a wonderful dream it is!
-
Usually Dreamer Sometimes DREAMer a person who qualifies for DACA or the Dream Act.
noun
-
a person who dreams habitually
-
a person who lives in or escapes to a world of fantasy or illusion; escapist
-
archaic a prophet; visionary
Etymology
Origin of dreamer
First recorded in 1250–1300; dreamer def. 4 first recorded in 2010–15; Middle English; see dream, -er 1 ( def. )
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.
Her sculpture park, titled “sister dreamer lauren halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles,” opens with a block party Saturday on the corner of Western Avenue and 76th Street.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 12, 2026
So it is all the more affecting that for this charming last novel, he left us with a dreamer.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026
British journalist William Pike, who interviewed Museveni in 1984, described him as having the "faraway look... of a dreamer, a revolutionary" who was "intensely serious but showed flashes of humour".
From Barron's • Jan. 17, 2026
I am a dreamer in life, as you will all know, and I want Emery to make it 10 wins in a row.
From BBC • Dec. 18, 2025
He was an inveterate tinkerer and inventor, a lover of gadgetry and mechanical devices, a designer of machines and contraptions of all sorts, a dreamer of big dreams.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
