Adjacent Words

Visionary definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

VI'SIONARY, a.
1. Affected by phantoms; disposed to receive impressions on the imagination.
Or lull to rest the visionary maid.
2. Imaginary; existing in imagination only; not real; having no solid foundation; as a visionary prospect; a visionary scheme or project.
VI'SIONARY, n.
1. One whose imagination is disturbed.
2. One who forms impracticable schemes; one who is confident of success in a project which others perceive to be idle and fanciful. [Visionist, in a like sense, is not used.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: not practical or realizable; speculative; "airy theories about socioeconomic improvement"; "visionary schemes for getting rich" [syn: airy, impractical, visionary, Laputan, windy] n
1: a person given to fanciful speculations and enthusiasms with little regard for what is actually possible
2: a person with unusual powers of foresight [syn: visionary, illusionist, seer]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Date: 1648 1. a. of the nature of a vision ; illusory b. incapable of being realized or achieved ; utopian <a visionary scheme> c. existing only in imagination ; unreal 2. a. able or likely to see visions b. disposed to reverie or imagining ; dreamy 3. of, relating to, or characterized by visions or the power of vision 4. having or marked by foresight and imagination <a visionary leader> <a visionary invention> Synonyms: see imaginary • visionariness noun II. noun (plural -aries) Date: 1702 1. one whose ideas or projects are impractical ; dreamer 2. one who sees visions ; seer 3. one having unusual foresight and imagination <a visionary in the computer industry>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 given to seeing visions or to indulging in fanciful theories. 2 existing only in a vision or in the imagination. 3 not practicable. --n. (pl. -ies) a visionary person. Derivatives: visionariness n.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Visionary Vi"sion*a*ry, a. [Cf. F. visionnaire.] 1. Of or pertaining to a visions or visions; characterized by, appropriate to, or favorable for, visions.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Visionary Vi"sion*a*ry, n.; pl. Visionaries. 1. One whose imagination is disturbed; one who sees visions or phantoms. 2. One whose imagination overpowers his reason and controls his judgment; an unpractical schemer; one who builds castles in the air; a daydreamer.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(visionaries) 1. If you refer to someone as a visionary, you mean that they have strong, original ideas about how things might be different in the future, especially about how things might be improved. An entrepreneur is more than just a risk taker. He is a visionary. N-COUNT 2. You use visionary to describe the strong, original ideas of a visionary. ...the visionary architecture of Etienne Boulleé. ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. Imaginative, romantic, given to revery. 2. Unreal, fanciful, fancied, ideal, fantastic, imaginary, chimerical, illusory, shadowy, wild, dreamy, romantic, unsubstantial, air-built. II. n. Dreamer, enthusiast, zealot, castle-builder, fanatic.

Moby Thesaurus

Barmecidal, Barmecide, Don Quixote, Quixote, Utopian, abstracted, addict, airy, apparent, apparitional, astral, autistic, bug, chimeric, collector, daydreamer, daydreaming, daydreamy, deceptive, delusional, delusionary, delusive, delusory, demon, dereistic, dreamer, dreamer of dreams, dreamlike, dreamy, eager beaver, energumen, enthusiast, erroneous, escapist, exalted, faddist, fallacious, false, fanatic, fanciful, fantast, fantastic, fiend, freak, grandiose, great one for, hobbyist, hound, idealist, idealistic, illusional, illusionary, illusive, illusory, imaginary, impractical, in the clouds, infatuate, introspective, lofty, lotus-eater, misleading, musing, noble, nut, ostensible, otherworldly, phantasmagoric, phantasmal, phantom, poetic, pretentious, prophet, pursuer, quixotic, radical, rhapsodist, romancer, romancing, romantic, romanticist, romanticized, seeming, seer, self-deceptive, self-deluding, specious, spectral, speculative, starry-eyed, storybook, sucker for, supposititious, transcendental, transmundane, unactual, unfounded, unpractical, unreal, unrealistic, unsubstantial, unworkable, unworldly, utopian, utopianist, utopianizer, wish-fulfilling, wishful thinker, zealot