Definition of fanciful
1 : marked by fancy or unrestrained imagination rather than by reason and experience a fanciful person a fanciful tale of a monster in the woods
2 : existing in fancy (see 2fancy) only a fanciful notion the falsehoods about some fanciful secret treaties — F. D. Roosevelt
3 : marked by or as if by fancy or whim gave their children fanciful names
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Examples of fanciful in a Sentence
a fanciful tale of a monster in the woods
They gave all their children fanciful names.
Recent Examples of fanciful from the Web
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She’s also adept at weaving fanciful tales that continually reset the story — Sirens!
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But of course mere plot summary hardly does justice to Fitzgerald’s gift for milking a fanciful gag, charmingly, unto a length of 5,000 words or so.
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The fanciful twists of this romantic roundelay by the Argentinean director Matías Piñeiro keep the Shakespearean promise of the title.
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Just a few months ago, the notion of China as the savior of international order would have struck most as fanciful, even absurd.
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The tech industry's annual Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, is known for showing off a ton of crazy gadgets, both useful and fanciful.
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But Nichols doesn’t give us a poet’s fanciful notion of love.
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The results will be stories that are less fanciful than Kipling’s, but no less fascinating.
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The possibility of Mr. Trump in the Oval Office — an outcome that once seemed fanciful — became less remote on Tuesday night when his main challenger, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, quit the race.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'fanciful'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Circa 1627
First Known Use of fanciful
circa 1627
Synonym Discussion of fanciful
FANCIFUL Defined for English Language Learners
fanciful
playDefinition of fanciful for English Language Learners
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: coming from the imagination
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: showing imagination : unusual and appealing
FANCIFUL Defined for Kids
fanciful
playDefinition of fanciful for Students
1 : showing free use of the imagination a fanciful tale
2 : coming from imagination rather than reason He dreamed up a fanciful plan for getting rich.
fancifully
\-fə-lē\ adverbLearn More about fanciful
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for fanciful Spanish Central: Translation of fanciful Nglish: Translation of fanciful for Spanish speakers
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