WILL-O'-THE-WISPS Synonyms: 36 Similar and Opposite Words

will-o'-the-wisps

noun

plural of will-o'-the-wisp

as in pipe dreams

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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

Definition of pipe dreams

Noun

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
Walking through prewar Berlin, taking in its historic architecture, Susanna daydreams of her native New York, an ever-changing city where buildings are torn down and rebuilt in the blink of an eye.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 5 Oct. 2026

Definition of daydreams

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

Definition of mirages

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.

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will-o'-the-wisp

will-o'-the-wisps

willowy

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“Will-o'-the-wisps.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/will-o%27-the-wisps. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of will-o'-the-wisps

noun

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