wishful thinking
45
4.1
- noun
- /ˈwɪʃfəl ˈθɪŋkɪŋ/
- Informal
:
pensamiento ilusorio
- His plan to travel the world without any money is nothing but wishful thinking.
But most European leaders dismiss his ideas as wishful thinking.
- But most European leaders dismiss his ideas as wishful thinking.
- And he concludes this is actually wishful thinking, not investigation of the natural world.
- Maybe sometimes they are easily duped by their own wishful thinking.
- We see that acutely now, when people's health can be jeopardized by false claims, wishful thinking, and invented realities.
- So I'm like, is this wishful thinking or do they have some kind of higher soul connection that I don't have with him?
- It's, you know, it was wishful thinking to think that, I mean, I, I live in a, a town and I'm in New Hampshire.
- We were engaged in wishful thinking and we didn't stop it with sanctions before the shooting started to push back.
- You're not I'll though no right, okay, like wishful thinking.
- and just being really rigorous in making that assessment because people are tend tend to natural human tendency is wishful thinking.
Examples
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The only thing this guy is guilty of is wishful thinking.
Fiction book (1992) -
Well, that's just wishful thinking, buddy.
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That is where wishful thinking will take you.
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Yeah, that was wishful thinking on your part, but we never did.
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Well, that may be wishful thinking on her part.
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That would be wishful thinking.
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However, in the real world, that is only wishful thinking.
Academic text (2018) -
All this talk of equality is wishful thinking.
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But that's just wishful thinking.
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That's wishful thinking.
Synonyms
23
6.8
A hope or plan that is not likely to happen
8
4.6
A belief about the future that is not likely to happen
5
5.1
A way of seeing things as better than they are and ignoring problems
2
7.0
Showing something as perfect or much better than it is
1
6.7
A feeling of strong hope for something unlikely to happen
1
4.8
A forecast that is too hopeful about how things will turn out
Unrealistic hope despite clear signs it will not happen
Being too hopeful even when facts show it is unlikely
An idea that things will always turn out well, even when there are problems
An overly optimistic view that ignores real problems
An overly optimistic view that ignores real problems
Predicting the future by looking into a crystal ball or guessing about the future without real proof
Antonyms
How Realistic
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'wishful' (desiring or hoping for something unlikely) with 'thinking' (the process of considering or believing). This adjective+noun composition transparently denotes thinking shaped by wishes rather than evidence, a straightforward, cross-linguistically common pattern that a B1 learner who knows both words would understand.
Etymology
Wishful thinking comes from the simple image of someone making a wish and then imagining it will really happen. Because they 'want' the result more than they look at facts, wishful thinking means believing something will happen even though it is 'unlikely'.