wishful thinking

American  

noun

1. interpretation of facts, actions, words, etc., as one would like them to be rather than as they really are; imagining as actual what is not.

---

wishful thinking British  

noun

1. the erroneous belief that one's wishes are in accordance with reality

---

wishful thinking Idioms  

1. Interpreting matters as one would like them to be, as opposed to what they really are. For example, Matthew wanted to be a basketball player, but with his height that was wishful thinking. This term comes from Freudian psychology of the mid-1920s and soon began to be used more loosely.

---

Other Word Forms

• wishful thinker
  noun

Etymology

Origin of wishful thinking

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wishful thinking

Though OpenAI and Hugging Face say they’ve figured out what happened, experts such as Russell say that’s probably wishful thinking.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026

Others tracking sports-rights deals counter that such a price tag is wishful thinking.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

“This is not just our wishful thinking, it is what we hear from our customers.”

From Barron's ● May 8, 2026

Or it could be some combination of bluff and wishful thinking.

From BBC ● Apr. 6, 2026

“Lord, may our dinner be filling to our minds, bodies, and souls,” Hilda said, which sounded to me less like a blessing and more like wishful thinking.

From "X: A Novel" by Ilyasah Shabazz