will-o'-the-wisps

plural of will-o'-the-wisp

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for will-o'-the-wisps
Noun
  • 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, Literary Hub, 12 Aug. 2026
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
Noun
  • Season openers often produce outlier performances and knee-jerk overreactions that look like complete mirages by the end of the year.
    — Antwan Staley, New York Daily News, 14 Sep. 2026
  • The problems with mail ballots These easily explained mirages don’t necessarily mean that mail-ballot fraud is a nonissue and that there is nothing to be concerned about.
    — Andrew E. Busch, The Conversation, 23 July 2026
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.

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Will-o'-the-wisps.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/will-o%27-the-wisps. Accessed 31 Oct. 2026.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster