fantasy

adjective

: of, relating to, or being a game in which participants create and manage imaginary teams consisting of players from a particular sport and scoring is based on the statistical performances of the actual players

fantasy football/baseball/basketball

playing fantasy sports

The draft is the best part of being part of a fantasy league. … You get to choose the players you like and want to watch and help you win.

—Lawrence Doto

Paula [Knoy] knows how to sacrifice for her fantasy team, even passing up a player like Eli Manning from her favorite New York Giants for a higher scoring quarterback.

—Ruby Thomas

Examples of fantasy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In the semi-fantasy version of Turkey that Çatak has devised here, everyone has to make compromises with reality, including filmmakers themselves. —Jordan Mintzer, HollywoodReporter, 13 Feb. 2026

All of these accidents, some less happy than others, led to what is now Hollywood’s biggest non-fantasy action series. —Scott Mendelson, Forbes, 22 June 2021

Martin's initial brilliance was to begin A Song of Ice and Fire as a kind of post-fantasy, where characters remember magic as a bygone possibility. —Darren Franich, EW.com, 17 Apr. 2021

Divinity: Original Sin 2 Further Reading Ars Technica’s best video games of 2017 If the two of you are already fantasy role-playing veterans, try Divinity: Original Sin 2. —Valentina Palladino and Jeff Dunn, Ars Technica, 7 Feb. 2020

Word History

Etymology

from attributive use of fantasy entry 1

First Known Use

1984, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing fantasy

• flight of fancy/imagination/fantasy
• live in a fantasy world

Rhymes for fantasy

• phantasy

Kids Definition

fantasy

noun

fan·​ta·​sy

variants also phantasy

ˈfant-ə-sē, 

-ə-zē

plural fantasies

1

: imagination sense 3, fancy

2

: something imagined: as

a

: illusion sense 2

b

: fantasia

c

: a work of literature set in an unreal world often with superhuman characters and monsters

Medical Definition

fantasy

1 of 2 noun

fan·​ta·​sy

variants also phantasy

ˈfant-ə-sē  -zē 

plural fantasies

: 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

fantasy

2 of 2 verb

variants also phantasy

fantasied; fantasying

: fantasize