PIPE DREAMS Synonyms: 38 Similar and Opposite Words

pipe dreams

noun

plural of pipe dream

as in dreams

a conception or image created by the imagination and having no objective reality opening our own restaurant has long been a pipe dream

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of pipe dreams As the league and union continue amassing their respective war chests for the next CBA four-to-five years down the road, the last thing the league needs to do publicly is depict pipe dreams as front-burner issues. — Jonathan Jones, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2026 Arendt then cited Wilhelm Marr’s Sieg des Judentums über das Germanentum (The Victory of Judaism over Teutonism, 1869), thus lining up all the antisemitic pipe dreams that came close to fulfillment. — Literary Hub, 12 Aug. 2026 The Information posited, while noting that since 2020, Meta’s Reality Lab division has lost $87 billion chasing metaverse pipe dreams. — Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 10 July 2026 Music promoters, both craving the one-upmanship and genuine satisfaction of getting a lucrative band back on a stage, have more money at their disposal than ever before to make their pipe dreams a reality. — Devon Ivie, Vulture, 13 Nov. 2025 The stalker pipe dreams need to stop here. — Micah McCartney, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2025 The idea that renewables alone can power the American economy is nonsense given the current technology, green pipe dreams notwithstanding. — Editorial, Boston Herald, 8 Sep. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for pipe dreams

Noun

Dellucci and his teammates had fulfilled their personal dreams and made history as the fastest franchise to win a World Series.

— Don Riddell, CNN Money, 26 Oct. 2026
The name draws on rapid eye movement, the stage of sleep associated with vivid dreams.

— Tianwei Zhang, Footwear News, 25 Oct. 2026

Definition of dreams

Noun

Some opening day effects are long gone, such as the illusion created by actual shifting doors at the start of the attraction, or visions of tumbling rubble near its beginning.

— Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times, 23 Oct. 2026
Polls now show the two running neck-and-neck in a race marked by sharply different visions for Brazil’s economy, security and place in the world.

— Alessandra Freitas, CNN Money, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of visions

Noun

Every Saturday morning, about 190 starry-eyed students ages 10 to 18 attend classes in everything from puppetry, mime and clowning to juggling, card tricks, illusions, mentalism, stage magic, theater production and escapology.

— Julie Bourdin, NPR, 25 Oct. 2026
Pokémon cards, a pricey Ferrari shirt and a touristy museum of illusions.

— Jeanne Bonner, CNN Money, 16 Oct. 2026

Definition of illusions

Noun

The words cut sharply into the jumble of to-do lists, fantasies, snippets of possible writing, worry, and leftover traces of postpartum depression that constituted my mind in the early months of 1993.

— Via Scribner, Literary Hub, 9 Oct. 2026
Every week, the critics and editors at The New York Times Book Review pick the most interesting and notable new releases, from literary fiction and serious nonfiction to thrillers, romance novels, fantasies, mysteries and everything in between.

— New York Times, New York Times, 8 Oct. 2026

Definition of fantasies

Noun

This helps warm up the imagination; daydreams, nightmares are easy ways in.

— Emily Temple, Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 2026
The songs on Purdy also have the tone of journal entries, detailing haggard trips to the grocery store, daydreams about his young daughters’ glamorous adult lives, and observations about the banality of oppression.

— Dash Lewis, Pitchfork, 15 Oct. 2026

Definition of daydreams

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pipe dream

pipe dreams

piped up

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“Pipe dreams.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pipe%20dreams. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of pipe dreams

noun

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