PIPE DREAMS Synonyms: 38 Similar and Opposite Words

pipe dreams

noun

plural of pipe dream

as in dreams

a conception or image created by the imagination and having no objective reality opening our own restaurant has long been a pipe dream

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of pipe dreams The Information posited, while noting that since 2020, Meta’s Reality Lab division has lost $87 billion chasing metaverse pipe dreams. — Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 10 July 2026 Music promoters, both craving the one-upmanship and genuine satisfaction of getting a lucrative band back on a stage, have more money at their disposal than ever before to make their pipe dreams a reality. — Devon Ivie, Vulture, 13 Nov. 2025 The stalker pipe dreams need to stop here. — Micah McCartney, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2025 The idea that renewables alone can power the American economy is nonsense given the current technology, green pipe dreams notwithstanding. — Editorial, Boston Herald, 8 Sep. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for pipe dreams

Noun

That’s what happens when a party and its voters stop seriously competing and instead indulge their passions and fever dreams.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 19 July 2026
Its warble seemed the embodiment of dreams, that melted meeting point between memories and fantasy.

— Sam Goldner, Pitchfork, 19 July 2026

Definition of dreams

Noun

Jupiter in Leo will form an inspiring trine to Neptune retrograde in Aries while also opposing Pluto retrograde in Aquarius, creating a push-and-pull between our visions for the future and the inevitable transformation at play.

— Valerie Mesa, PEOPLE, 20 July 2026
America at 250 seems stuck in a miasma of rival populisms that offer irreconcilable visions for curing what ails our country.

— Will Marshall, Washington Post, 18 July 2026

Definition of visions

Noun

Neither of them, however, had any illusions about his prospects.

— Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker, 13 July 2026
Because only in intense, rarefied states will our illusions finally drop away, like redundant scaffolding, freeing us to perceive life on a more visceral level.

— Sebastian Smee, The Atlantic, 11 July 2026

Definition of illusions

Noun

And amidst the momentum of reverie, there’s the line ‘Blink at the light and hope to survive,’ because daydreams in a fascist state can be scary too.

— Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 23 June 2026
One-touch passing, feinting and ripping hard shots into a tattered net, each is super-charged by vivid daydreams of glory on the international stage.

— Jason Motlagh, Rolling Stone, 22 June 2026

Definition of daydreams

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pipe dream

pipe dreams

piped up

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“Pipe dreams.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pipe%20dreams. Accessed 25 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of pipe dreams

noun

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