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Glite Dictionary
airy-fairy

airy-fairy

1 8.8
Not practical and too much like a dream
  • adjective
  • /ˈɛriˈfɛri/
  • UK
translation icon : irreal
  • The presentation was filled with airy-fairy ideas that lacked any practical application in the real world.

And if they're not, it's, again, it's just this kind of airy fairy kind of vague idea.

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Examples

  • From day one, this airy-fairy doctor had this Svengali control over her.

    The Boost (1988)

  • While I do think that the majority of writing "advice" is impractical and a bit airy-fairy (which is why my own advice is weighted so heavily toward discipline and getting the damn work done), every once in a while one has to sit back and think about why and how we're doing this thing.

    Blog text (24)

  • This message is not an airy-fairy thing.

    Blog text (9)

  • I just wanted to get on with it without bogging down in all this airy-fairy talk.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • And I want to honor you with a real day, not just the, the airy fairy woo woo stuff.

    Evan Carmichael

  • Don't believe in all that airy-fairy bullshit.

    Jigsaw (2002)

  • And if they're not, it's, again, it's just this kind of airy fairy kind of vague idea.

    Rich Roll

  • Airy-fairy, Disneyland, Tinker Bell...

    Gray's Anatomy (1996)

  • Only a tiny percentage of aspiring screenwriters will ever make it, and all the pep talks and airy-fairy, positive thinking in the world can't change that!

    Blog text (5)

  • There's a common airy-fairy notion in the West that the Buddha didn't teach specific doctrines at all, for example, a view unsupported by even a casual reading of the Tripitaka.

    Blog text (3)

Synonyms

fanciful
vsairy-fairy
12 6.0

Imaginative but not true or practical

is more dismissive, suggesting excessive whimsy and lack of seriousness
airy
vsairy-fairy
4 6.9

Ideas and plans that are not realistic

is more imaginative and suggests excessive whimsy or lack of seriousness

Antonyms

practical
507 2.6

About how something works in real life rather than in ideas

serious
452 1.4

Calm and focused, not playful or joking

How Serious

grave
  • Formal
181 4.2
serious
452 1.4
whimsical
38 7.4
airy-fairy
  • UK
1 8.8
frivolous
74 6.8
silly
976 1.0

Surface Forms

airy-fairy positive

Morphology

airy-fairy = airy + fairy (semi-transparent) = airy + fairy

The meaning is predictable from 'airy' and 'fairy' (both suggest insubstantiality and fancifulness) but the colloquial negative sense ('impractical' or 'silly') and the reduplicative intensifying format make it somewhat idiomatic.

Etymology

Airy-fairy comes from putting together airy ('light', 'not solid') and fairy ('a small magical creature'). Thinking of something 'as light as air' and 'from fairy tales' makes it easy to remember that airy-fairy means impractical or unreal, not serious.