fairy tale
noun
a story, usually for children, about elves, hobgoblins, dragons, fairies, or other magical creatures.
Jump To:
-
fairy tale
-
fairy-tale
fairy-taleadjectiveof or relating to a fairy tale
fairy tale
American
[fair-ee teyl]
/ ˈfɛər i ˌteɪl /
noun
-
fairy tales
plural
-
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.
adjective
-
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.
fairy-tale
1
British
adjective
-
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
fairy tale
2
British
noun
-
a story about fairies or other mythical or magical beings, esp one of traditional origin told to children
-
a highly improbable account
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fairy tale
First recorded in 1740–50
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.
See Examples For:
But these narratives tell you nothing more than that Wall Street’s brokers were exposed at impressionable ages to the Goldilocks fairy tale.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
For those who really read it without the false sense of reverence imbued by generations, Homer’s poem has the feel of a fairy tale.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
Planetary scientists call this the "Goldilocks zone", after the fairy tale girl who was fussy about the temperature of her porridge.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Mr. Spielberg combined fairy tale with sci-fi beautifully in his 2001 masterpiece, “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
She was happy to discover that she could get through most of the first story, a fairy tale about a girl who wore a big hat that wouldn’t come off, ever.
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
Although the film was Tom Cruise’s earliest foray into action-adventure, emerging before 1986’s “Top Gun” buried its cultural legacy, any fresh Hollywood face could have played Scott’s fairy-tale hero.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026
Pictures show an exterior that conjures up images of a fairy-tale cottage hidden away among the trees, while the interior is a vibrant rainbow of colors, textures, and decor.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 17, 2026
“His pictures,” Barnes wrote, “have the charm of a child’s fairy-tale, but there is nothing childish or untutored in the skill with which they are executed.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 15, 2025
The walls of the fairy-tale castle — buoyantly pink and cheerfully blue — have stood through multiple wars, civil rights movements, economic downturns and nearly every societal trend, change or tragedy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2025
When Petra had looked at herself in the mirror, she’d felt pretty for the first time, a fairy-tale frog transformed into a princess.
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
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.
