flights of fancy
Whimsical mental journeys
Flights of fancy are imaginative, fanciful, or impractical ideas—the mind soaring away from mundane reality.
The phrase often carries a gentle dismissiveness, suggesting thoughts untethered from practical concerns: His plans for the business were flights of fancy rather than serious proposals.
Creative types may indulge flights of fancy productively; in others, they signal daydreaming or wishful thinking.
- artistryExceptional creative skill
- imaginationFaculty for forming ideas
- whimsyPlayful, capricious quality
- phantasmagoriaShifting sequence of illusions
- literatureBody of written works
chimera · woolgathering · poetry · quixotic · wishful thinking · blue sky thinking · creativity · invention · analogy · daydreaming · castles in the air · cloud cuckoo land · fairy tales · pipe dream · pie in the sky · make-believe · fantasies · reverie
- creativityimagination, creativity, brainstorming, unique voice, inspiration
- daydreamingdaydreaming, daydreams, fantasies, deep in thought, musings
- imaginationimagination, daydreaming, daydreams, fantasies, fantasy
- fictionfiction, novel, novels, novella, novellas
- whimsywhimsy, whim, fairies, caprice, unicorns
flights of fancyhard facts
Verified, objective information
pragmatism · realism · level-headedness · rational thought · feet on the ground
flights of fancypragmatism
Practical problem-solving philosophy
nuts and bolts · brass tacks · bottom line · practicalities · the here and now
flight, fancy, flying, flown, flights, flyers, flighty, fancied, fancier