Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective quixotic contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of quixotic are chimerical, fanciful, fantastic, imaginary, and visionary. While all these words mean "unreal or unbelievable," quixotic implies a devotion to romantic or chivalrous ideals unrestrained by ordinary prudence and common sense.

a quixotic crusade

How does the word chimerical relate to other synonyms for quixotic?

Chimerical combines the implication of visionary and fantastic.

chimerical dreams of future progress

When can fanciful be used instead of quixotic?

The words fanciful and quixotic can be used in similar contexts, but fanciful suggests the free play of the imagination.

a teller of fanciful stories

When would fantastic be a good substitute for quixotic?

While the synonyms fantastic and quixotic are close in meaning, fantastic implies incredibility or strangeness beyond belief.

a fantastic world inhabited by monsters

When is imaginary a more appropriate choice than quixotic?

The meanings of imaginary and quixotic largely overlap; however, imaginary applies to something which is fictitious and purely the product of one's imagination.

an imaginary desert isle

When is it sensible to use visionary instead of quixotic?

While in some cases nearly identical to quixotic, visionary stresses impracticality or incapability of realization.

visionary schemes

Example Sentences

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 quixotic There’s a quixotic gallantry to appealing to a saner conservative and looking ahead to a post-Trump American politics. James Folta, Literary Hub, 14 Aug. 2025 But Cruz’s quixotic effort did succeed in a couple of ways. David M. Drucker, Mercury News, 12 Aug. 2025 The quixotic quarterback decision that sealed the end. Seth Emerson, New York Times, 30 July 2025 My lab has been on a decade-long quixotic adventure to study awake infants with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a form of brain imaging that can measure activity from regions deep in the brain such as the hippocampus. Nick Turk-Browne, Scientific American, 28 July 2025 See All Example Sentences for quixotic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for quixotic
Adjective
  • In fact, today a friendship could turn romantic.
    Georgia Nicols, Denver Post, 30 Sep. 2025
  • Cassie and another accuser, Jane, told jurors that Diddy brought them into his troubled world under the false auspices of a romantic relationship.
    Victoria Bekiempis, Vulture, 30 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • For apartment residents or those without garages, the lack of charging options makes EV adoption impractical.
    Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 3 Oct. 2025
  • The 2025 Wrangler Rubicon 4xe is absurd, impractical, overpriced, and an odd combination of power – which is exactly why people should love it.
    New Atlas, New Atlas, 27 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • The trend for the last twenty years is for a Balkanized internet—not the idealistic worldwide web, but local internet without much access to the outside.
    Richard Stengel, Time, 1 Oct. 2025
  • Tensions arise when a struggling, idealistic poet meets his girlfriend’s family at their idyllic, hillside countryside home in Hong Sang-soo’s latest feature — a quietly profound meditation on the complexities of filial love and familial strife.
    Christian Blauvelt, IndieWire, 30 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Ramírez planted the flag in the infield grass before Slider grabbed it, engaged with a sea of fans who didn’t want to abandon the utopian setting at the ballpark, and then handed it to David Fry.
    Zack Meisel, New York Times, 29 Sep. 2025
  • At the same time, such a transition as implied by the current crisis necessitates and implies a coming organizational shift in society, but that could either result in a hideous fascism or in something genuinely utopian.
    Ed Simon September 24, Literary Hub, 24 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Wish-casting a better result for a confrontation in a different place, Vindman suppresses how much and how often America antagonized Russia through its idealist actions, rather than realist inaction.
    Samuel Moyn, Harpers Magazine, 16 July 2025
  • This, in turn, becomes logically reliant on the idealist paradigm of Consciousness as the fundamental lowest common denominator of reality.
    Carlo Tortora Brayda, Forbes, 6 Mar. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Quixotic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/quixotic. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.

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