a story, usually for children, about elves, hobgoblins, dragons, fairies, or other magical creatures.
an incredible or misleading statement, account, or belief.
His story of being a millionaire is just a fairy tale.
of, relating to, or suggesting a fairy tale.
a fairy-tale castle.
idealized or romantic, often to an unrealistic extent.
Many people still want to believe in true love and fairy-tale endings.
of or relating to a fairy tale
resembling a fairy tale, esp in being extremely happy or fortunate
a true story with a fairy-tale ending
highly improbable
he came out with a fairy-tale account of his achievements
a story about fairies or other mythical or magical beings, esp one of traditional origin told to children
a highly improbable account
First recorded in 1740–50
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Wilson says of their immersive storybook escape, which features a delightful hand-painted mural on the walls and tiny lanterns that, when touched, offer a narrated fairy tale.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2026
In the familiar fairy tale, sleep represents something close to the curse of death; in this version, and in Mr. Spears’s haunting musical landscape, it is a state preferable to waking.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
Their suspicious acceptance more readily hints at the painful reality underneath this modest fairy tale.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 19, 2026
"It's a bit like the Cinderella fairy tale," says Benjamin Koch from the Institute for Theoretical Physics at TU Wien.
From Science Daily • Mar. 9, 2026
Ivy thought that sounded magical—swimming the butterfly—like something out of a fairy tale.
From "Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World" by Ashley Herring Blake
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.
