: characteristic of or suitable to a fairy tale
especially
: marked by seemingly unreal beauty, perfection, luck, or happiness
led a fairy-tale life
a store clerk's fairy-tale romance
1
a
: a story (as for children) involving fantastic forces and beings (such as fairies, wizards, and goblins)
enjoyed the fairy tale "The Little Mermaid"
called also fairy story
b
: a story in which improbable events lead to a happy ending
those balletic fairy tales in which a new corps member steps in for an injured principal at the last minute and delivers a splendid performance—
Margaret Willis
Margaret Willis2
: a made-up story usually designed to mislead
an old-fashioned fairy tale depicting revolutionists as demigods—Jonathan Zimmerman
Jonathan ZimmermanExamples of fairy-tale in a Sentence
Noun
the fairy tale about the sleeping princess
Everything he told us about his happy marriage was just a fairy tale.
Recent Examples on the Web
Patricia Lockwood, New Yorker, 18 May 2025
Intuiting that her lust for vendetta is a more effective lever to pull than, say, June’s political commitments or even her guilt, Joseph brings up Serena Joy’s fairy-tale wedding.
—Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 6 May 2025
Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 15 May 2025
Archaeologists discovered the true identity of two shipwrecks in shallow waters off Cahuita National Park, on Costa Rica’s southern Caribbean coast, that were long thought to be pirate ships.
— Perhaps a toadstool house isn’t just a fairy tale.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 4 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for fairy-tale
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Adjective
Downstairs on the fairy-tale terrace, over an exorbitant Scottish cheese board, her mother and husband and sister were all screaming at one another.
—Patricia Lockwood, New Yorker, 18 May 2025
Intuiting that her lust for vendetta is a more effective lever to pull than, say, June’s political commitments or even her guilt, Joseph brings up Serena Joy’s fairy-tale wedding.
—Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 6 May 2025
Noun
In fairy tales, knights sometimes wander into a village that’s being held in the thrall of a spell cast around the desires of one lucky individual.
—Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 15 May 2025
Archaeologists discovered the true identity of two shipwrecks in shallow waters off Cahuita National Park, on Costa Rica’s southern Caribbean coast, that were long thought to be pirate ships.
— Perhaps a toadstool house isn’t just a fairy tale.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 4 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for fairy-tale
Cite this Entry
“Fairy-tale.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fairy-tale. Accessed 25 May. 2025.
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