: of, relating to, or being a game in which participants create and manage imaginary teams consisting of players from a particular sport and scoring is based on the statistical performances of the actual players
fantasy football/baseball/basketball
playing fantasy sports
The draft is the best part of being part of a fantasy league. … You get to choose the players you like and want to watch and help you win. Lawrence Doto
Paula [Knoy] knows how to sacrifice for her fantasy team, even passing up a player like Eli Manning from her favorite New York Giants for a higher scoring quarterback. Ruby Thomas
Anyone who has bought a Lotto ticket has probably fantasied about all the amazing places they will go as soon as their numbers come tumbling out of the barrel. Conor Pope
While growing up, most Disney fans have fantasied about being their favorite princess, prince or Disney character … Carolina Brigagao
Noun His plans are pure fantasy. He can hardly tell the difference between fantasy and reality. His plans are just fantasies. Her fantasy is to be a film star. His plans are the product of pure fantasy. I spent my summer reading fantasies. Verb She regularly fantasied the moment of celebration after winning the gold medal. See More
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Despite her husband's disdain for the raccoons, Linda still fawns over the fantasy world of Little King Trashmouth and Co. Evan Hecht, USA TODAY, 12 Sep. 2022 The opening credits of Game of Thrones famously offer a dynamic bird’s-eye trip around a pulsing map of George R. R. Martin’s fantasy world. David Sims, The Atlantic, 29 Aug. 2022 That tale is of a young woman, Signa Farrow, who was orphaned as a baby and grows up living with various guardians over the years in a fantasy world loosely based on the Victorian era in the United Kingdom.San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Aug. 2022 But this is far from the first time that Hollywood tried to put the sprawling fantasy world to film. Ethan Shanfeld, Variety, 25 Aug. 2022 House of the Dragon faces an uphill battle to see if viewers are still interested in adaptations of George R. R. Martin’s vast fantasy world, or if one eight-season global phenomenon was enough. Milan Polk, Men's Health, 21 Aug. 2022 Though the series is set in a fantasy world, Aemma’s fate is a reminder of the suffering endured by countless women throughout history before anesthetics, antibiotics and other modern medical advancements. Meredith Blakestaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 21 Aug. 2022 Three years after the global phenomenon Game of Thrones ended with its polarizing finale, HBO has revived the fantasy world through a prequel focusing on Daenerys Targaryen's ancestors. Quinci Legardye, Harper's BAZAAR, 21 Aug. 2022 As a longtime Tolkien fan, the star was also drawn to being a part of his one-of-a-kind fantasy world. Christian Allaire, Vogue, 16 Aug. 2022
Adjective
All of these accidents, some less happy than others, led to what is now Hollywood’s biggest non-fantasy action series. Scott Mendelson, Forbes, 22 June 2021 Martin's initial brilliance was to begin A Song of Ice and Fire as a kind of post-fantasy, where characters remember magic as a bygone possibility. Darren Franich, EW.com, 17 Apr. 2021 Divinity: Original Sin 2 Further Reading Ars Technica’s best video games of 2017If the two of you are already fantasy role-playing veterans, try Divinity: Original Sin 2. Valentina Palladino And Jeff Dunn, Ars Technica, 7 Feb. 2020 Injury concerns will continue to haunt him, but Cook (and his handcuff) will be fantasy gold for those with an early pick in 2020 drafts. Tony Holm, USA TODAY, 24 Dec. 2019 Allison was coming into his own during the 2018 season before suffering a season-ending injury, and now may find himself in position to be fantasy relevant again. John Romero, The Denver Post, 3 Oct. 2019 In most fantasy league setups, pass-rushing 3-4 OLBs like Khalil Mack and Von Miller are hugely devalued compared with linebackers who play in the middle. Ross Miles, Sports Illustrated, 21 June 2019 The rankings reflect overall fantasy value in a standard 12-team, point-per-reception (PPR) league. Steve Gardner, USA TODAY, 2 Aug. 2019 There's also a third Ameobi brother somewhere posing the very real and definitely not fantasy notion of the world's first three-man fraternal management team.SI.com, 19 July 2019 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English fantasie, fantsy, fansey "the imagination as a faculty, mental image produced by this faculty, deluded notion, figment of the imagination, preference directed by caprice rather than reason, liking," borrowed from Anglo-French fantasie "imagination as a faculty, figment of the imagination, dizziness," borrowed from Late Latin phantasia "imagination as a faculty, mental image of something perceived physically, image evoked by a poet or orator, a thing imagined by someone sleeping or ill, delusion," going back to Latin, "imagined situation or experience," borrowed from Greek phantasía "appearance, presentation to consciousness (whether immediate or in memory), image, imagination as a faculty, imagery," noun derivative corresponding to phantázein "to make visible, present to the eye or mind, (middle voice) place before one's mind, picture to oneself, imagine," causative verb from phantós "visible," verbal adjective of phaínō, phaínein (active voice) "to bring to light, cause to appear," and phaínomai, phaínesthai (middle voice) "to become visible, come to light, appear," going back to *phan-i̯e/o-, thematized from Indo-European *bh-né-h2-/bh-n̥-h2- (whence also Armenian banam "(I) open, reveal"), nasal present from *bheh2- "shine, give light, appear," whence Sanskrit bhā́ti "(it) shines, beams," Avestan fra-uuāiti "(it) beams forth"; the verb is allied to nominal derivatives in -n-, as Germanic *bōnjan- (whence Old English bōn "ornament," gebōned "ornamented," Middle Dutch boenen "to scrub, polish"), Old Irish bán "white, fair, bright," Tocharian B peñiyo "splendor," Sanskrit bhānú- "light, beam, brilliance, appearance," Avestan bānu- "beam of light"
Note: Compare fancy entry 2, in Middle English a rare variant of fantasie; the two split from each other in early Modern English, so that fancy entry 2 and fantasy now differ in meaning and construction. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a not infrequent sense, usually with the spelling phantasy, was "the formation of images or representations in direct perception or in memory," more or less following the Greek meaning. — Regarding the relation of *bheh2- "shine, give light, appear" to the homonymous base *bheh2- "speak, say," see the note at ban entry 1.