Main Entry: ¹fan·ta·sy

Variant(s): also phan·ta·sy \ˈfan-tə-sē, -zē\

Function: noun

Inflected Form(s): plural fan·ta·sies

Etymology: Middle English fantasie — more at fancy

Date: 14th century

1 obsolete : hallucination
2 : fancy; especially : the free play of creative imagination
3 : a creation of the imaginative faculty whether expressed or merely conceived: as a : a fanciful design or invention b : a chimerical or fantastic notion c : fantasia 1 d : imaginative fiction featuring especially strange settings and grotesque characters —called also fantasy fiction
4 : caprice
5 : the power or process of creating especially unrealistic or improbable mental images in response to psychological need <an object of fantasy>; also : a mental image or a series of mental images (as a daydream) so created <sexual fantasies of adolescence>
6 : a coin usually not intended for circulation as currency and often issued by a dubious authority (as a government-in-exile)