Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Resembling or characteristic of a dream: Having the unreal, vague, or surreal quality often experienced in dreams.
   • Having a magical, ethereal, or otherworldly quality: Seeming too perfect, beautiful, or strange to be real.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • The mist over the valley created a dreamlike atmosphere.
  • Her memories of the event were hazy and dreamlike.
  • The film has a slow, dreamlike pace that draws you into its world.

Advanced Usage

• Used to describe art or narrative: Often applied to creative works that use surreal imagery, nonlinear storytelling, or a sense of unreality.
  • The painter is known for his dreamlike landscapes that blend reality and fantasy.
• Used to describe a state of mind: Can refer to a dazed, detached, or semi-conscious mental state.
  • After the accident, he walked away in a dreamlike stupor.

Variants and Related Words

• Dreamily (adverb): In a dreamy or dreamlike manner.
  • She stared dreamily out the window.
• Dreaminess (noun): The quality of being dreamy or dreamlike.
  • The dreaminess of the music was very relaxing.

Synonyms

• Surreal: Having the disorienting, bizarre quality of a dream.
• Ethereal: Extremely delicate, light, and not of this world.
• Phantasmagoric: Having a fantastic or deceptive appearance, as in a dream.
• Unreal: Lacking in reality or substance.

Antonyms

• Realistic: Having or showing a sensible and practical idea of what can be achieved or expected.
• Ordinary: With no special or distinctive features; normal.
• Down-to-earth: Practical and realistic.

Related Phrases and Idioms

• Like a dream: Used to describe something that happens very smoothly, easily, or perfectly.
  • The event went off like a dream.
  • (Note: This idiom focuses on perfection/ease, while "dreamlike" focuses on surreal quality.)
• In a dream world: Used to suggest someone is not being realistic.
  • If you think you can finish that in one day, you're living in a dream world.

Adjective

1. resembling a dream
   • night invested the lake with a dreamlike quality
   • as irrational and surreal as a dream