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Synonyms

fantastic

American  
[fan-tas-tik] / fænˈtæs tɪk /

adjective

  1. extraordinarily good; excellent.

    a fantastic restaurant.

  2. Also fantastical

    1. conceived or appearing as if conceived by an unrestrained imagination; odd and remarkable; bizarre; grotesque.

      The most fantastic rock formations are visible from the high plateau of the park’s rim trail.

      Artists rendered fantastic designs in the margin of the manuscript.

    2. fanciful or capricious, as persons or their ideas or actions.

      We never know what that fantastic creature will say next.

    3. imaginary or groundless in not being based on reality; foolish or irrational.

      You can’t let these fantastic fears of yours control your life.

    4. extravagantly fanciful; marvelous.

      The scenery and lighting they created for the dream sequences are truly fantastic!

    5. incredibly great or extreme; exorbitant.

      The rich are spending fantastic sums of money, even in this economy.

    6. highly unrealistic or impractical.

      They hatched a fantastic scheme to make a million dollars betting on horse races.


fantastic British  
/ fænˈtæstɪk /

adjective

  1. strange, weird, or fanciful in appearance, conception, etc

  2. created in the mind; illusory

  3. extravagantly fanciful; unrealistic

    fantastic plans

  4. incredible or preposterous; absurd

    a fantastic verdict

  5. informal very large or extreme; great

    a fantastic fortune

    he suffered fantastic pain

  6. informal very good; excellent

  7. of, given to, or characterized by fantasy

  8. not constant; capricious; fitful

    given to fantastic moods

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. archaic a person who dresses or behaves eccentrically

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Related Words

See bizarre.

Other Word Forms

  • fantasticality noun
  • fantastically adverb
  • fantasticalness noun
  • superfantastic adjective
  • superfantastically adverb
  • unfantastic adjective
  • unfantastically adverb

Etymology

Origin of fantastic

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English fantastik “pertaining to the imaginative faculty,” from Medieval Latin fantasticus, variant of Late Latin phantasticus, from Greek phantastikós “able to present the appearence (of something),” derivative of phantázein “to make present to the eye or mind” (akin to phānós “light, bright,” phaínein “to bring to light, cause to appear”) + -tikos -tic

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.

"It's been a fantastic story. The results are really promising but it's early days," says Petrushkin.

From BBC

I think the movie’s fantastic, but what I got out of it personally, it was extraordinary.

From Los Angeles Times

He said you could always count on him in a game and you could always depend on him off the pitch as well, because he was an absolutely fantastic lad.

From BBC

Their first adventures journey far from that horror, with each discrete story translated through Spear and Fang’s movements through their cruel, fantastic world.

From Salon

Our place is at treetop level and clears the buildings across the street, so we get fantastic light.

From The Wall Street Journal