English Dictionary

FANTASTIC

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does fantastic mean? 

FANTASTIC (adjective)
  The adjective FANTASTIC has 5 senses:

1. ludicrously oddplay

2. extraordinarily good or great; used especially as intensifiersplay

3. fanciful and unrealistic; foolishplay

4. existing in fancy onlyplay

5. extravagantly fanciful in design, construction, appearanceplay

  Familiarity information: FANTASTIC used as an adjective is common.


 Dictionary entry details 


FANTASTIC (adjective)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Ludicrously odd

Synonyms:

antic; fantastic; fantastical; grotesque

Context example:

a grotesque reflection in the mirror

Similar:

strange; unusual (being definitely out of the ordinary and unexpected; slightly odd or even a bit weird)


Sense 2

Meaning:

Extraordinarily good or great; used especially as intensifiers

Synonyms:

fantastic; grand; howling; marvellous; marvelous; rattling; terrific; tremendous; wonderful; wondrous

Context example:

a tremendous achievement

Similar:

extraordinary (beyond what is ordinary or usual; highly unusual or exceptional or remarkable)


Sense 3

Meaning:

Fanciful and unrealistic; foolish

Synonyms:

fantastic; wild

Context example:

a fantastic idea of his own importance

Similar:

unrealistic (not realistic)

Derivation:

fantasy (imagination unrestricted by reality)


Sense 4

Meaning:

Existing in fancy only

Synonyms:

fantastic; fantastical

Context example:

fantastic figures with bulbous heads the circumference of a bushel

Similar:

unreal (lacking in reality or substance or genuineness; not corresponding to acknowledged facts or criteria)

Derivation:

fantasy (imagination unrestricted by reality)


Sense 5

Meaning:

Extravagantly fanciful in design, construction, appearance

Context example:

Gaudi's fantastic architecture

Similar:

fancy (not plain; decorative or ornamented)


 Context examples 


What more could you want? This is fantastic!

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

To him they were frankly imaginative and fantastic, though invested with all the glamour of the real, wherein lay their power.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“I think, Watson,” he remarked at last, “that of all our cases we have had none more fantastic than this.”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Alleyne smiled as he wondered what fantastic and wondrous deed would be exacted from him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Our whole scheme might seem fantastic if laid before a magistrate.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I was through it, when a sudden fantastic impulse came upon me, and I went back to my successful rival, who looked nervously at the electric push.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His face, his manner, the large waves and sweeps of his white hands, his easy air of superiority, his fantastic fashion of talk, all filled me with interest and wonder.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"In course!" he exclaimed, with a twang of voice and a distortion of features equally fantastic and ludicrous.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The liver is also a fantastic place for intervention because one can then prevent that person from getting malaria by stopping parasites from coming out of their liver.

(New way to stop falciparum malaria transmission, SciDev.Net)

The results were nothing short of fantastic: A star eight times heavier than the sun was orbiting a 70-solar-mass black hole every 79 days.

(Unpredicted stellar black hole discovered by astronomers, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"It's no use crying over spilt milk." (English proverb)

"The low fig can be climbed by everyone." (Albanian proverb)

"Evil in people does not go away when they get buried." (Arabic proverb)

"A goose’s child is a swimmer." (Egyptian proverb)



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