reverie
Americannoun
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a state of dreamy meditation or fanciful musing.
lost in reverie.
- Synonyms:
- brown study, abstraction
-
a daydream.
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a fantastic, visionary, or impractical idea.
reveries that will never come to fruition.
-
Music. an instrumental composition of a vague and dreamy character.
noun
-
an act or state of absent-minded daydreaming
to fall into a reverie
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a piece of instrumental music suggestive of a daydream
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archaic a fanciful or visionary notion; daydream
Etymology
Origin of reverie
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, from Old French reverie, resverie, derivative of rever, resver, raver “to speak wildly, wander, dream”; rave 1, -ery
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Breuer has made this his rallying cry as he drives change in the armed forces and tries to jolt Germans from their post-Cold War, end-of-history reverie.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 12, 2026
Jones turned from her reverie and looked at Behar as if the latter were a bag of dog poop burning on her doorstep.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 11, 2025
He is likely to find this reverie equally fantastical.
From Slate • May 8, 2025
But as he travels home on the boat, shutting out the world with giant sunglasses and a baggy hoodie, Lochlan doesn’t really seem to have learned anything from his reverie.
From Salon • Apr. 7, 2025
When she reaches the podium I snap out of my reverie.
From "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
