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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Dozens of companies are now competing to make the world’s first viable humanoid robot, convinced that recent advances in AI have made what was once a pipe dream into achievable reality.—
Billy Perrigo,
Time,
14 Oct. 2025
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While full generational improvement may be a pipe dream, the movie at least suggests the benefits of the modern urge to explore and expose.—
Steven Zeitchik,
HollywoodReporter,
6 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Florida State’s season-opening rout of Alabama has become this season’s biggest mirage.—
Stewart Mandel,
New York Times,
19 Oct. 2025
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Then, imagine those color-changing mountains reflected in the briny water of desert salt flats, a mirage that ripples when local flamingos fly by in twos and threes.—
Laura Dannen Redman,
Robb Report,
16 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The standard choices presented to us—reason versus superstition, progress versus barbarism, past versus future, space versus Earth, growth versus stasis—were always chimeras.—
Paul Kingsnorth,
Harpers Magazine,
19 Sep. 2025
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The chimera appear to float toward a star, as if drawn into -- or perhaps emerging from -- another plane of existence.—
Natasha Gural,
Forbes.com,
1 Aug. 2025
Noun
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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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Don’t let delusions (especially those planted by gaslighters) guide your thoughts and heart.—
Lisa Stardust,
Refinery29,
14 Oct. 2025
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Chatbots are known to validate users’ obsessions and delusions, and most of the litigation around this phenomenon has so far pertained to self-harm, as in the suits Jain has brought against OpenAI and Character Technologies.—
Miles Klee,
Rolling Stone,
11 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The cringing mortifications and unsettling unreality make the series a tough sit.—
Angie Han,
HollywoodReporter,
11 Oct. 2025
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Longtime Vogue readers can likely recognize Steven Klein’s photographs at a glance, what with their glaring colors, arresting compositions, and beguiling sense of unreality.—
Vogue,
Vogue,
7 Oct. 2025
Noun
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In pieces on patriotism as a kind of madness, on the long history of Polish and Russian colonizations and cultural appropriations of Ukraine, on the ways communities fantasize and share their daydreams, and others, Janion creates wormholes between past and present.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Oct. 2025
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The series can feel like a collective daydream.—
Mark Travers,
Forbes.com,
16 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Inspired by mirrors, which reflect reality while simultaneously generating illusion, the collection explored the tension between the two.—
Denni Hu,
Footwear News,
17 Oct. 2025
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Her research examines people’s beliefs about what others think of them, including illusions and biases that can interfere with social connection, and interventions to improve people’s social lives.—
Maya Rossignac-Milon
Erica Boothby,
CNBC,
17 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ignis fatuus.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ignis%20fatuus. Accessed 21 Oct. 2025.
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