flight of fancy
Whimsical mental journey
A flight of fancy is an imaginative idea or thought that strays far from practical reality.
The phrase suggests the mind taking off and soaring into creative or whimsical territory, often with little concern for what's actually possible.
His plan to sail around the world in a homemade boat was dismissed as a flight of fancy.
The term can be used approvingly to describe creative imagination or dismissively to suggest someone is being unrealistic.
Conscious fantasy while awake
- fantasyImaginative mental wandering
- reverieAbstracted, pleasant daydream
- pipe dreamUnrealistic aspiration
- wishful thinkingBelief shaped by desire
castle in the air · head in the clouds · wool-gathering · distraction · detachment · retreat · refuge · getaway
Misleading sensory impression
- delusionStubbornly held false belief
- figmentImagined thing, unreal
- chimeraUnrealistic fantasy or hybrid
- phantasmIllusory supernatural appearance
mirage · hallucination · fiction · myth · fable · fabrication · apparition · specter
Conscious fantasy while awake
- reverieAbstracted, pleasant daydream
- fantasyImaginative mental wandering
- whimsyPlayful, capricious quality
- creativityCapacity for original thought
invention · ideation · brainstorming · inspiration · visionary · ingenuity · originality · novelty
Sleeping mind's narrative
yearning · longing · wish · goal · ideal · utopia · possibility · potential
Unpredictable urge or notion
- whimSudden arbitrary desire
- playfulnessLighthearted, frisky spirit
- lightheartednessCheerful lack of worry
- frivolityUnserious, lighthearted conduct
levity · eccentricity · spontaneity · impulse · quirk · jest · frolic · amusement
daydream
Conscious fantasy while awake
- fantasyImaginative mental wandering
- reverieAbstracted, pleasant daydream
- pipe dreamUnrealistic aspiration
wishful thinking · castle in the air · head in the clouds · wool-gathering · distraction · detachment · retreat · refuge · getaway
illusion
Misleading sensory impression
- delusionStubbornly held false belief
- figmentImagined thing, unreal
- chimeraUnrealistic fantasy or hybrid
phantasm · mirage · hallucination · fiction · myth · fable · fabrication · apparition · specter · impossibility
daydream
Conscious fantasy while awake
- reverieAbstracted, pleasant daydream
- fantasyImaginative mental wandering
- whimsyPlayful, capricious quality
creativity · invention · ideation · brainstorming · inspiration · visionary · ingenuity · originality · novelty · abstraction
dream
Sleeping mind's narrative
desire · yearning · longing · wish · goal · ideal · utopia · possibility · potential · romanticism
caprice
Unpredictable urge or notion
- whimSudden arbitrary desire
- playfulnessLighthearted, frisky spirit
- lightheartednessCheerful lack of worry
frivolity · levity · eccentricity · spontaneity · impulse · quirk · jest · frolic · amusement · silliness
- imaginationimagination, daydreaming, daydreams, fantasies, fantasy
- fantasiesdaydream, fantasy, dream, wishful thinking, illusion
- whimswhim, whimsy, caprice, impulse, notion
- flightflying, fly, aviation, aircraft, airplane
- whimsywhimsy, whim, fairies, caprice, unicorns
- futilityfutile, futility, in vain, pointlessness, vain
flight of fancyhard facts
Verified, objective information
realism · pragmatism · practicality · feet on the ground · reality
flight of fancylogical deduction
Deriving conclusions from premises
critical thinking · evidence-based reasoning · scientific method
flight, fancy, fanciful, flights, flighty, fancier, fancying, flightless, flightiness