fantasia

American  

[fan-tey-zhuh, -zhee-uh, fan-tuh-zee-uh] / fænˈteɪ ʒə, -ʒi ə, ˌfæn təˈzi ə /

noun

1. Music.

   1. a composition in fanciful or irregular form or style.

   2. a potpourri of well-known airs arranged with interludes and florid embellishments.

2. fantasy.

3. something considered to be unreal, weird, exotic, or grotesque.

---

fantasia British  

/ ˌfæntəˈzɪə, fænˈteɪzɪə /

noun

1. any musical composition of a free or improvisatory nature

2. a potpourri of popular tunes woven freely into a loosely bound composition

3. another word for fancy

---

Etymology

Origin of fantasia

From Italian, dating back to 1715–25; 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

Shot on film by cinematographer Alex Ashe to achieve a warm, grainy period look, the movie takes its two-people-talking premise as the unlikely springboard for a subtly rendered visual fantasia.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 6, 2025

The putrid chamber drama becomes a fantasia, befouled rags turn into tuxedo pants and it’s finally safe to belt how they feel.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 9, 2025

One chapter looks at a literary example, William Wells Brown’s novel "Clotel," which is something of a fantasia on the Sally Hemings story.

From Salon • Nov. 10, 2024

Yorgos Lanthimos’ gothic fantasia is up for 11 trophies, while Christopher Nolan’s atom-bomb epic has 13 nominations for the British prizes, known as BAFTAs.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 17, 2024

Unfortunately, the first half of this fantasia is the song I have just noticed, with elaborate bravura passages for the piano, but the middle episode is much more like the real man.

From Shakespeare and Music by Wilson, Christopher