How to Use fanciful in a Sentence

fanciful

adjective
  • They gave all their children fanciful names.
  • But this is such a fanciful part.
    — Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 16 Mar. 2026
  • Rings is far more fanciful, full of elves, dwarves, orcs, and the like.
    — Angela Watercutter, WIRED, 26 Dec. 2022
  • All this has always struck me as fanciful.
    — Quanta Magazine, 13 Feb. 2026
  • Fifty years ago, though, that outcome seemed fanciful at best.
    — Jon Caramanica, New York Times, 2 Aug. 2023
  • Trump’s attack against him is just too fanciful.
    — Marc Novicoff, The Atlantic, 21 Jan. 2026
  • The title is much more than fanciful.
    — David John Chávez, Mercury News, 30 Nov. 2025
  • But the idea that the vote could lead to an exit from the euro looks fanciful.
    — The Economist, 25 Jan. 2018
  • And both the policing and the lawyering in the episode are fanciful at best.
    — Scott D. Pierce, The Salt Lake Tribune, 20 Feb. 2022
  • Will a fanciful circus about a clown’s dream get you out of a March funk?
    — oregonlive, 15 Sep. 2022
  • That’s not even the most fanciful twist in Homestead’s plans, though.
    — Andres Viglucci and Monique O. Madan, miamiherald, 20 Aug. 2017
  • Making a living as a creator is no longer such a fanciful idea.
    — Jane Thier, Fortune, 25 Aug. 2022
  • Retreat a little over a week and all that would have felt nothing more than a fanciful dream.
    — Matt Woosnam, New York Times, 28 May 2025
  • The ensembles on the runway are as fanciful as the fetes, with equal frills and sparkle.
    — Vogue, 2 July 2018
  • However, some of your thinking might be a bit fanciful or far-out.
    — Georgia Nicols, Denver Post, 29 Sep. 2025
  • About a decade ago, some of this might have sounded like a fanciful tale or wishful thinking.
    — Pramod Konandur Prabhakar, Forbes, 18 Aug. 2022
  • First, both threats are fanciful to the point of serving as performance art.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 10 June 2025
  • Tighe’s bedroom got an even more fanciful treatment.
    — Cameron Beall, Southern Living, 10 May 2026
  • The motif then repeats in the fanciful purse’s square buckle and lock.
    — Saryn Chorney, Travel + Leisure, 9 Mar. 2023
  • The younger boys' bedroom may include the most fanciful bunk bed ever.
    — Sarah Halverson, Better Homes & Gardens, 26 May 2021
  • But Nichols doesn’t give us a poet’s fanciful notion of love.
    — Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 16 Nov. 2016
  • Abask, which is known for stocking fanciful, one-of-a-kind objects from best-in-class makers.
    — Stacia Datskovska, Footwear News, 30 Dec. 2025
  • These threats were often taken as fanciful.
    — Michael Blake, The Conversation, 26 Jan. 2026
  • Surely the novelty of the fanciful cat costumes has worn off by now.
    — David L. Coddon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Sep. 2022
  • Okay, so the fanciful Dyson Sphere appears to defy the laws of physics.
    — Adam Hadhazy, Popular Mechanics, 7 Mar. 2023
  • Okay, so the fanciful Dyson Sphere appears to defy the laws of physics.
    — Adam Hadhazy, Popular Mechanics, 7 Mar. 2023
  • And that isn’t a fanciful price — tickets for the final have listed for far higher.
    — Stefan Szymanski, Fortune, 12 June 2026
  • And that isn’t a fanciful price — tickets for the final have listed for far higher.
    — Stefan Szymanski, The Conversation, 10 June 2026
  • To a public raised on fanciful tales of Mars as harsh but habitable land, the views came as a shock.
    — Corey S. Powell, Discover Magazine, 18 Feb. 2021
  • If that all sounds a bit fanciful, well, that’s just the nature of nature in Iceland.
    — Yael Martínez, New York Times, 21 Sep. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fanciful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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