fantasy

American  

[fan-tuh-see, -zee] / ˈfæn tə si, -zi /

Rarely phantasy

noun

fantasies plural

1. imagination, especially when extravagant and unrestrained.

2. the forming of mental images, especially wondrous or strange ones; imaginative conceptualizing.

3. a mental image, especially when unreal or fantastic; vision.

   a nightmare fantasy.

4. Psychology. an imagined or conjured up sequence fulfilling a psychological need; daydream.

5. a hallucination.

6. a supposition based on no solid foundation; visionary idea; illusion.

   dreams of Utopias and similar fantasies.

7. caprice; whim.

8. an ingenious or fanciful thought, design, or invention.

9. a genre of fiction involving magical, folkloric, or mythical elements.

   I've been reading a lot of fantasy lately.

10. Literature. Also an imaginative or fanciful work, especially one dealing with supernatural or unnatural events or characters.

    The stories of Poe are fantasies of horror.

11. Music. fantasia.

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adjective

1. noting or relating to a genre of fiction involving magical, folkloric, or mythical elements.

   All his favorite fantasy novels are about elves.

2. noting or relating to any of various games or leagues in which fans assemble players of a professional sport into imaginary teams, and points are scored based on the performance of these players in real games.

   fantasy football;

   fantasy sports.

verb (used with or without object)

fantasies, present (3rd person singular) fantasied, past participle, past fantasying present participle

1. to form mental images; imagine; fantasize.

2. Rare. to write or play fantasias.

fantasy British  

/ ˈfæntəsɪ /

noun

1. 1. imagination unrestricted by reality

   2. ( as modifier )

      a fantasy world

2. a creation of the imagination, esp a weird or bizarre one

3. psychol

   1. a series of pleasing mental images, usually serving to fulfil a need not gratified in reality

   2. the activity of forming such images

4. a whimsical or far-fetched notion

5. an illusion, hallucination, or phantom

6. a highly elaborate imaginative design or creation

7. music another word for fantasia fancy development

8. 1. literature having a large fantasy content

   2. a prose or dramatic composition of this type

9. (modifier) of or relating to a competition, often in a newspaper, in which a participant selects players for an imaginary ideal team, and points are awarded according to the actual performances of the chosen players

   fantasy football

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verb

1. a less common word for fantasize

Synonym Usage

See fancy .

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonfantasy
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• fantasies
  plural

Participles

• fantasying
  present
• fantasied
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• fantasy
  simple
• fantasies
  simple
• have fantasied
  perfect
• has fantasied
  perfect
• am fantasying
  progressive
• are fantasying
  progressive
• is fantasying
  progressive
• have been fantasying
  perfect progressive
• has been fantasying
  perfect progressive

Past

• fantasied
  simple
• had fantasied
  perfect
• was fantasying
  progressive
• were fantasying
  progressive
• had been fantasying
  perfect progressive

Future

• will fantasy
  simple
• will have fantasied
  perfect
• will be fantasying
  progressive
• will have been fantasying
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of fantasy

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English fantasie “imaginative faculty, mental image” (from Anglo-French, Old French ), from Latin phantasia, from Greek phantasía “an idea, notion, image,” literally, “a making visible, display”; see fantastic , -y ³

Explanation

A fantasy is something you imagine, which might involve dragons, unicorns, or an imaginary best friend. If you live in a fantasy world, you're not worrying much about reality — pleasant, maybe, but not very practical. Fantasy is dreams and imagination. In a football fantasy league, you can create your own dream team. In literature, fantasy — a genre similar to science fiction — might include a story about a three-headed squirrel and a bionic aardvark who fall in love on a planet made entirely of strawberries. Romance can be fantasy, too, according to a Billy Joel song: "It's just a fantasy. It's not the real thing. But sometimes a fantasy is all you need."

Example Sentences

His AI fantasy series “The Chronicle of Bones,” which uses Seedance, features half a dozen distinct storylines and an ensemble of characters.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 3, 2026

With their flamboyant costumes and choreography, the group became a pop culture phenomenon, targeting disco's large gay audience with camp fantasy characters of butch builders, bikers, cowboys and soldiers.

From Barron's • Jul. 1, 2026

Ditto a new 1.75% tax on sports bets made on prediction markets, and a 15% tax on receipts of fantasy sports operators.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 26, 2026

No pet dragons, though — just a baby unicorn, representing the fantasy mascot ruling many of that era’s pre-teen accessory drawers.

From Salon • Jun. 24, 2026

Landscape gardening was no more than a bohemian fantasy, as well as a lame ambition—so he had analyzed it with the help of Freud—to replace or surpass his absent father.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

Related Words

• delusion
• fancy
• illusion
• nightmare
• reverie
• vision