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fanciful - 3 dictionary results

fan⋅ci⋅ful

  [fan-si-fuhl]
Use fanciful in a Sentence
–adjective
1. characterized by or showing fancy; capricious or whimsical in appearance: a fanciful design of butterflies and flowers.
2. suggested by fancy; imaginary; unreal: fanciful lands of romance.
3. led by fancy rather than by reason and experience; whimsical: a fanciful mind.
Origin:
1620–30; fancy + -ful

Related forms:
fan⋅ci⋅ful⋅ly, adverb
fan⋅ci⋅ful⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
2. visionary, baseless, illusory.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To fanciful
fan·ci·ful   (fān'sĭ-fəl)   
adj.  
  1. Created in the fancy; unreal: a fanciful story.
  2. Tending to indulge in fancy: a fanciful mind.
  3. Showing invention or whimsy in design; imaginative. See Synonyms at fantastic.
fan'ci·ful·ly adv., fan'ci·ful·ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Fanciful

Fan"ci*ful\, a. 1. Full of fancy; guided by fancy, rather than by reason and experience; whimsical; as, a fanciful man forms visionary projects.

2. Conceived in the fancy; not consistent with facts or reason; abounding in ideal qualities or figures; as, a fanciful scheme; a fanciful theory.

3. Curiously shaped or constructed; as, she wore a fanciful headdress.

Gather up all fancifullest shells. --Keats.

Syn: Imaginative; ideal; visionary; capricious; chimerical; whimsical; fantastical; wild.

Usage: Fanciful, Fantastical, Visionary. We speak of that as fanciful which is irregular in taste and judgment; we speak of it as fantastical when it becomes grotesque and extravagant as well as irregular; we speak of it as visionary when it is wholly unfounded in the nature of things. Fanciful notions are the product of a heated fancy, without any tems are made up of oddly assorted fancies, aften of the most whimsical kind; visionary expectations are those which can never be realized in fact. -- Fan"ci*ful*ly, adv. -Fan"ci*ful*ness, n.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : fanciful
Spanish: caprichoso,
German: phantasiereich,
Japanese: 空想にふける
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