visionary
Americanadjective
-
given to or characterized by fanciful, not presently workable, or unpractical ideas, views, or schemes.
a visionary enthusiast.
- Synonyms:
- impracticable, impractical
- Antonyms:
- practical
-
given to or concerned with seeing visions.
-
belonging to or seen in a vision.
-
unreal; imaginary.
visionary evils.
- Synonyms:
- chimerical, illusory, fancied
-
purely idealistic or speculative; impractical; unrealizable.
a visionary scheme.
- Synonyms:
- unrealistic
-
of, relating to, or proper to a vision.
noun
-
a person of unusually keen foresight.
-
a person who sees visions.
-
a person who is given to audacious, highly speculative, or impractical ideas or schemes; dreamer.
adjective
-
marked by vision or foresight
a visionary leader
-
incapable of being realized or effected; unrealistic
-
(of people) characterized by idealistic or radical ideas, esp impractical ones
-
given to having visions
-
of, of the nature of, or seen in visions
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of visionary
Explanation
You've got big ideas. Crazy ideas. But forward-thinking ideas — ideas that just might change the way the world works. You're considered a visionary. Visionaries are ahead of their time, always thinking creatively. You could say that a visionary can envision what the future holds and come up with solutions that fit that picture. Those wild ideas aren't always met with appreciation though. Skeptics think that visionaries aren't grounded in reality. And usually the visionaries tell them to stop being so shortsighted!
Vocabulary lists containing visionary
Common Senses: Vid, Vis ("See")
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"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift
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30 GRE Words Beginning with "T" "U" "V" and "W"
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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:
Originally built in 1962, the home is described as having been “thoughtfully designed with a visionary architectural aesthetic inspired by Philippe Starck.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
He even thought Adam Neumann, the founder of WeWork, was a visionary leader.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
“He’s gone well beyond proving himself as a visionary entrepreneur, visionary business leader,” Rogers says.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
But at the movie theater, it’s the truth: Hollywood still has an interest in funding visionary stories.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026
A visionary and patriot, Tlacaelel believed that the Mexica were destined to rule a vast empire.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
“We have the benefit of being founded and led by Elon Musk, one of the great visionaries of our generation,” SpaceX touted in its IPO paperwork.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 5, 2026
Commissions have changed over the years, allowing modern visionaries — art houses and creatives from across the globe — to showcase grand spectacles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2026
The visionaries of the early Space Age didn’t worry much about solar radiation, coronal mass ejections, galactic cosmic rays, psychological stress from isolation, and cost-benefit ratios.
From Slate ● Dec. 9, 2025
None of that is likely to happen, at least not the way these galaxy-brain visionaries imagine.
From Salon ● Dec. 7, 2025
The first scythes were true visionaries and saw the wisdom of continuing to cultivate wisdom.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
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.
