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.

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wishful thinking British  

noun

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

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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.

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Other Word Forms

• wishful thinker noun

Etymology

Origin of wishful thinking

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

My mother’s voice knocked me out of my wishful thinking.

From Salon

Maybe that is wishful thinking, but what's clear is that Scotland will go into the Six Nations shed of the sort of expectation they have had to carry in recent seasons.

From BBC

That's an awful lot of wishful thinking, an awful lot of kicking a decision down the road.

From BBC

“A lot of people get into this wishful thinking or hypotheticals” around taking advantage of specific perks, Papadimitriou said.

From The Wall Street Journal

“I accept there is a degree of wishful thinking,” he says regarding his belief in his painting, which doesn’t make him any less charming a subject for the show.

From The Wall Street Journal