Definition

Noun: A person who creates or indulges in fantasies; someone who imagines or invents elaborate, unrealistic, or fanciful stories, scenarios, or ideas.

Usage

The term "fantasist" is used to describe an individual whose thinking or creative output is characterized by elaborate imagination, often detached from reality. It can be neutral, describing a creative writer, or slightly critical, implying a tendency toward self-deception or escapism. - As a novelist, she was a brilliant fantasist, building entire worlds from her imagination. - He was dismissed as a mere fantasist when he claimed to have met aliens.

Examples

• The children's author was a beloved fantasist, spinning tales of talking animals.
• His colleagues saw him as a fantasist who spent more time daydreaming about success than working toward it.
• Some historical accounts were written by fantasists rather than reliable chroniclers.

Advanced Usage

• In a clinical context: While not a formal diagnostic term, "fantasist" can informally describe someone with a pattern of constructing elaborate false beliefs or narratives, potentially overlapping with conditions like mythomania or certain personality disorders.
  • The psychiatrist noted the patient's behavior was consistent with that of a compulsive fantasist.

Variants and Related Words

• Fantasy (n): The faculty or activity of imagining things, especially things that are impossible or improbable.
• Fantastical (adj): Imaginative or fanciful; remote from reality.
• Fantasia (n): A musical or other composition free in form and often improvisatory; a medley of familiar tunes.

Synonyms

• Dreamer: A person who dreams or is idealistic, often without a focus on the impractical.
• Visionary: A person with original ideas about what the future will or could be like (usually more positive and prophetic than "fantasist").
• Fabulist: A person who composes or relates fables; a liar (shares the connotation of inventing stories).

Idioms and Phrases

• A Walter Mitty type: An ordinary, unadventurous person who indulges in exciting daydreams. This idiom from James Thurber's short story is a close cultural synonym for a mild-mannered fantasist.
  • He's a bit of a Walter Mitty, always fantasizing about being a secret agent.

Noun

1. a creator of fantasies