: the attribution of reality to what one wishes to be true or the tenuous justification of what one wants to believe
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Examples of wishful thinking in a Sentence
The idea that the enemy will immediately surrender is nothing more than wishful thinking.
Recent Examples of wishful thinking from the Web
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But our personal psychology is always pushing its way into things in the form of wishful thinking, which leads us to confuse our opinions with facts.
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Whether that was wishful thinking or an effort to calm an irascible president, Cobb's prediction proved incorrect.
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Viewers nevertheless invest themselves in the pearls of wisdom from experts whose expertise comes into question as their predictions — a blend of bold assumptions and wishful thinking — fall apart like wet tissue practically from the opening chimes.
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That's wishful thinking on my part, but Schreiter allowed that the theater is mulling ways to make the pizza more widely available.
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That was wishful thinking, even though some of Shkreli’s victims didn’t actually lose their investments, and made substantial profits in the end.
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Is our scientific rigor distorted by wishful thinking?
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That was wishful thinking, even though some of Shkreli's victims didn't actually lose their investments, and made substantial profits in the end.
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These had been crafted with care — and no small amount of wishful thinking.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'wishful thinking.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
First Known Use of wishful thinking
1932
WISHFUL THINKING Defined for English Language Learners
wishful thinking
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: an attitude or belief that something you want to happen will happen even though it is not likely or possible
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