as in dreams
a conception or image created by the imagination and having no objective reality
hoped that one day world peace would be a reality and not just a daydream
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Recent Examples of daydreams
Jennifer Acker, PEOPLE, 8 May 2026
Some stories plant deep in your creative brain and come out through songs heard on the radio and random daydreams in the shower.
—Literary Hub, 7 May 2026
Just think of all those vacant Madonnas, structurally perfect compositions, and obedient daydreams of antiquity.
—Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 20 Apr. 2026
The family car is a Mazda, but Zac daydreams of a Bugatti Veyron.
—Frank Langfitt, NPR, 4 Apr. 2026
More than masturbatory daydreams, Vladimir inspires our heroine to write with abandon, ignoring professional and personal obligations in service to her muse.
—Alison Herman, Variety, 5 Mar. 2026
Below, some of the finest, high-quality ruffled bedding around the web for creating the frothy bedscape of your daydreams.
—Yelena Moroz Alpert, Architectural Digest, 28 Feb. 2026
Rather than stressing over social niceties, sitting in ornate carriages and snacking on cream cakes, Sophie daydreams while scrubbing floors and delivering tea.
—Madeline Hirsch, InStyle, 26 Feb. 2026
Shortly after, the book began to take shape, with new elements often arriving in vivid daydreams and eerie nightmares.
—Charlie Vargas, Oc Register, 30 Jan. 2026
Noun
Nina, Karen and Caroline started appearing in my daydreams, full of vigor and life lessons.
—Jennifer Acker, PEOPLE, 8 May 2026
Some stories plant deep in your creative brain and come out through songs heard on the radio and random daydreams in the shower.
—Literary Hub, 7 May 2026
Just think of all those vacant Madonnas, structurally perfect compositions, and obedient daydreams of antiquity.
—Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 20 Apr. 2026
The family car is a Mazda, but Zac daydreams of a Bugatti Veyron.
—Frank Langfitt, NPR, 4 Apr. 2026
More than masturbatory daydreams, Vladimir inspires our heroine to write with abandon, ignoring professional and personal obligations in service to her muse.
—Alison Herman, Variety, 5 Mar. 2026
Below, some of the finest, high-quality ruffled bedding around the web for creating the frothy bedscape of your daydreams.
—Yelena Moroz Alpert, Architectural Digest, 28 Feb. 2026
Rather than stressing over social niceties, sitting in ornate carriages and snacking on cream cakes, Sophie daydreams while scrubbing floors and delivering tea.
—Madeline Hirsch, InStyle, 26 Feb. 2026
Shortly after, the book began to take shape, with new elements often arriving in vivid daydreams and eerie nightmares.
—Charlie Vargas, Oc Register, 30 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for daydreams
Noun
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Around him, siblings, lovers and friends face CIA threats, tourist-rental anxieties, drug-dealing producers, secret desire and lottery dreams in a choral portrait of love, family and frustrated escape.—
Callum McLennan,
Variety,
11 May 2026
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Each gets stage time to speak at length about their dreams, both realized and broken, and regrets.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
11 May 2026
Noun
-
The sophisticated set by ace production designer David Gropman enables Altman’s perpetually moving and zooming camera to drift in and out of two-way mirrors that depict memories and fantasies with both immediacy and a gauzy nostalgia.—
Jim Hemphill,
IndieWire,
1 May 2026
-
But what Danielson says was intended as a symbolic protest escalated dramatically amid paranoid fantasies, prosaic miscommunications, and the false report of a gun.—
Tessa Stuart,
Rolling Stone,
23 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Their shared trip gradually turns into a confrontation with their own lives, relationships and visions of the future.—
Leo Barraclough,
Variety,
6 May 2026
-
There are many competing visions of how technology and military strategy should be combined in the Gulf’s waters, some of which cross into the bizarre.—
Mohammed Sergie,
semafor.com,
4 May 2026
Verb
-
Frenza fantasizes about her visit to the post office, scene after scene, with unbridled delight.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
7 Apr. 2026
-
Each generation is accused of selling out true conservative principles in order to govern; a radical flank fantasizes about restoring the Party to those principles.—
Antonia Hitchens,
New Yorker,
6 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Masks are slipping and illusions are fading.—
Valerie Mesa,
PEOPLE,
6 May 2026
-
The United States, searching for self-definition but loath to lose its illusions—its innocence—needed all of this as a counterpoint.—
Sebastian Smee,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
Verb
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When the dreams start bleeding into real life, Charlie — who fancies himself an amateur detective — convinces his brother and friends to investigate Lorcan’s mysterious origins, a thread that soon unravels an entire secret fantasy world kept under wraps by the elders of the island.—
Wilson Chapman,
IndieWire,
1 May 2026
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And Ripi fancies itself as a disruptor.—
Justin Birnbaum,
Sportico.com,
19 Mar. 2026
Verb
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One tweet features an AI cover of a fake Slayr album called BURGERMAN that imagines him as a half-burger, half-human hybrid engulfed in a hellish flood of grease and cheese splatter.—
Kieran Press-Reynolds,
Pitchfork,
8 May 2026
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In the year 2027 (which is somehow just one year from now, please stop, passage of time), Children of Men imagines a world where women have been infertile for years, dooming humanity to a slow extinction.—
Grace Dean,
Space.com,
2 May 2026
Verb
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And while the device shoots only low-resolution, B&W still images, when combined with audio-capture and Bluetooth connection to the internet for third-party facial recognition, the threat to privacy is obvious and massive.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
21 Apr. 2026
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And Israel has also imposed strict rules about what images citizens and journalists can and can't post online.—
Geoff Brumfiel,
NPR,
10 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Daydreams.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/daydreams. Accessed 13 May. 2026.
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