fantastic

[fan-tas-tik]

See more synonyms for fantastic on Thesaurus.com

adjective

conceived or appearing as if conceived by an unrestrained imagination; odd and remarkable; bizarre; grotesque: fantastic rock formations; fantastic designs.
fanciful or capricious, as persons or their ideas or actions: We never know what that fantastic creature will say next.
imaginary or groundless in not being based on reality; foolish or irrational: fantastic fears.

extravagantly fanciful; marvelous.
incredibly great or extreme; exorbitant: to spend fantastic sums of money.
highly unrealistic or impractical; outlandish: a fantastic scheme to make a million dollars betting on horse races.
Informal. extraordinarily good: a fantastic musical.

Also fan·tas·ti·cal.

Origin of fantastic

1350–1400; Middle English fantastik pertaining to the imaginative faculty < Medieval Latin fantasticus, variant of Late Latin phantasticus < Greek phantastikós able to present or show (to the mind), equivalent to *phantad-, base of phantázein to make visible (akin to phānós light, bright, phaínein to make appear) + -tikos -tic

Related formsfan·tas·ti·cal·ly, adverbfan·tas·ti·cal·ness, fan·tas·ti·cal·i·ty, nounsu·per·fan·tas·tic, adjectivesu·per·fan·tas·ti·cal·ly, adverbun·fan·tas·tic, adjectiveun·fan·tas·ti·cal·ly, adverb

Synonyms for fantastic

See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.com

1. Fantastic, bizarre, grotesque, weird share a sense of deviation from what is normal or expected. Fantastic suggests a wild lack of restraint, a fancifulness so extreme as to lose touch with reality: a fantastic scheme for a series of space cities. In informal use, fantastic often means simply “exceptionally good”: a fantastic meal. Bizarre means markedly unusual or extraordinarily strange, sometimes whimsically so: bizarre costumes for Mardi Gras; bizarre behavior. Grotesque implies shocking distortion or incongruity, sometimes ludicrous, more often pitiful or tragic: a grotesque mixture of human and animal features; grotesque contrast between the forced smile and sad eyes: a gnarled tree suggesting the figure of a grotesque human being. Weird refers to that which is mysterious and apparently outside natural law, hence supernatural or uncanny: the weird adventures of a group lost in the jungle; a weird and ghostly apparition. Informally, weird means “very strange”: weird and wacky costumes; weird sense of humor.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for fantastically

uncommonly, peculiarly, unusually, remarkably, rarely, uniquely, surprisingly, startlingly, strikingly, curiously, abnormally, amazingly, queerly, exceptionally, unnaturally, astonishingly, exotically, fantastically, indescribably

Examples from the Web for fantastically

Contemporary Examples of fantastically

In Revolution, Brand bemoans our “uninformed populace,” while repeatedly proving his point with fantastically wrong information.
Russell Brand’s Revolution For Morons
Michael Moynihan
November 2, 2014
The critics have not been kind, with The Guardian calling A Long Way Down “fantastically unconvincing.”
Pierce Brosnan’s Life After Bond: From Action Hero to Losing His Daughter to Cancer
Tim Teeman
July 2, 2014
On Sleepy Hollow, it was convincingly, if fantastically, rendered.
Was George Washington Among the Walking Dead?
Kevin Bleyer
January 26, 2014
More like fantastically well paying, brutal hours, and comparatively short.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Finally Out After a 13-Year Reign
Daniel Gross
August 23, 2013
On Travolta, a truly embarrassing business in the front/party in the back mullet, and on her fantastically big '80s hair.
Kelly Preston and John Travolta: Scientology’s Other Celebrity Wife
Tricia Romano
July 16, 2012

Historical Examples of fantastically

He did well at it, but he was fantastically old for this kind of business.
The Game of Rat and Dragon
Cordwainer Smith
The chest was bare to the waist, and was also fantastically painted.
Two Boys in Wyoming
Edward S. Ellis
He writes freely and fantastically, in spite of his early training.
A Popular History of the Art of Music
W. S. B. Mathews
His appearance did not impress me as fantastically as it had impressed Colonel McClure.
America First
Various
These too are fantastically decorated with feathers, usually of the loon.
The Dance Festivals of the Alaskan Eskimo
Ernest William Hawkes

British Dictionary definitions for fantastically

fantastically

adverb

in a fantastic manner
informal (intensifier)it's fantastically cheap

fantastic

adjective Also: fantastical

strange, weird, or fanciful in appearance, conception, etc
created in the mind; illusory
extravagantly fanciful; unrealisticfantastic plans
incredible or preposterous; absurda fantastic verdict
informal very large or extreme; greata fantastic fortune; he suffered fantastic pain
informal very good; excellent
of, given to, or characterized by fantasy
not constant; capricious; fitfulgiven to fantastic moods

noun

archaic a person who dresses or behaves eccentrically

Derived Formsfantasticality or fantasticalness, noun

Word Origin for fantastic

C14 fantastik imaginary, via Late Latin from Greek phantastikos capable of imagining, from phantazein to make visible

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

Word Origin and History for fantastically

fantastic

adj.

late 14c., "existing only in imagination," from Middle French fantastique (14c.), from Medieval Latin fantasticus, from Late Latin phantasticus "imaginary," from Greek phantastikos "able to imagine," from phantazein "make visible" (middle voice phantazesthai "picture to oneself"); see phantasm. Trivial sense of "wonderful, marvelous" recorded by 1938.