fan·ta·sy (făn'tə-sē, -zē)
n., pl., -sies.

1. The creative imagination; unrestrained fancy. See synonyms at imagination.
2. Something, such as an invention, that is a creation of the fancy.
3. A capricious or fantastic idea; a conceit.
4. 1. Fiction characterized by highly fanciful or supernatural elements.
   2. An example of such fiction.
5. An imagined event or sequence of mental images, such as a daydream, usually fulfilling a wish or psychological need.
6. An unrealistic or improbable supposition.
7. Music. See fantasia (sense 1).
8. A coin issued especially by a questionable authority and not intended for use as currency.
9. Obsolete. A hallucination.

tr.v., -sied, -sy·ing, -sies.
To imagine; visualize.

[Middle English fantasie, fantsy, from Old French fantasie, from Latin phantasia, from Greek phantasiā, appearance, imagination, from phantazesthai, to appear, from phantos, visible, from phainesthai, to appear.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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