as in pipe dream
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Recent Examples of ignis fatuus
Unveiling ignis fatuus: Microlightning between microbubbles.
—
Soo Kim, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Oct. 2025
Several sources say ignis fatuus, a spark of swamp gas, is the likely cause of the strange light.
—Fox News, 3 Mar. 2023
The story also helped explain ignis fatuus, a natural phenomenon that occurs in marshlands and bogs—such as those in Ireland’s countryside—producing flickering lights as gases from decomposing organic matter combust.
—National Geographic, 27 Oct. 2020
Soo Kim, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Oct. 2025
Several sources say ignis fatuus, a spark of swamp gas, is the likely cause of the strange light.
—Fox News, 3 Mar. 2023
The story also helped explain ignis fatuus, a natural phenomenon that occurs in marshlands and bogs—such as those in Ireland’s countryside—producing flickering lights as gases from decomposing organic matter combust.
—National Geographic, 27 Oct. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ignis fatuus
Noun
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Twenty years ago, during my first year as a geoscience undergraduate, a lecturer told me that predicting when and where the next major eruption would take place was a pipe dream — the implication being that volcanoes are far too idiosyncratic and mercurial to have much in common with one another.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
8 May 2026
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Going higher — into the complex realms of trisqueezing and quadsqueezing — has long been dismissed as an experimental pipe dream.—
Mrigakshi Dixit,
Interesting Engineering,
1 May 2026
Noun
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Each new hill brings a slightly different and powerful view of Martinez and its petroleum refinery infrastructure; farther in the horizon, like a mirage of an ivory city, shimmers a wind-turbine farm.—
John Metcalfe,
Mercury News,
4 May 2026
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But if those programs play each other in the play-in rounds, as seems likely, any financial windfall would be a mirage when the little guys cannibalize each other.—
Jim Alexander,
Oc Register,
2 May 2026
Noun
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Workers will continue with smaller tasks around the facade, including the installation of chimeras that sit on the roofline, but the heavy lifting has been completed, Walter said.—
Dylan Lovan,
Los Angeles Times,
1 Apr. 2026
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Rather than a somewhat normal for Hollywood bakeoff, Paramount plans to kind of smush the two scripts together into one IP chimera.—
Bethy Squires,
Vulture,
27 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
As the guitar-strumming will-o'-the-wisp Maria von Trapp, Julie Andrews taught us a few of her favorite things.—
Patrick Ryan,
USA Today,
12 Sep. 2025
Noun
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The first type is replete with hallucinations and delusions—voices, visions, grandiose beliefs, paranoia.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 Apr. 2026
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Over pinwheeling synths, Mahesh inhabits her narrator’s misplaced longing with gooey, heart-eyed delusion and sweetly pathetic determination.—
Harry Tafoya,
Pitchfork,
24 Apr. 2026
Noun
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As to the actual debate, there was an aura of unreality among the Democrats.—
John Seiler,
Oc Register,
29 Apr. 2026
-
The theme-park-like aesthetic added to the unreality of Annie's situation, living mostly in solitary confinement for the years after the world ended.—
Kelly Lawler,
USA Today,
23 Feb. 2026
Noun
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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,
Literary Hub,
7 May 2026
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Just think of all those vacant Madonnas, structurally perfect compositions, and obedient daydreams of antiquity.—
Zachary Fine,
New Yorker,
20 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Ignis fatuus.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ignis%20fatuus. Accessed 12 May. 2026.
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