Daydream

//ˈdeɪdɹiːm// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A spontaneous series of thoughts while awake not connected to immediate reality.
  2. 2
    absentminded dreaming while awake wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To have such a series of thoughts; to woolgather. intransitive

    "Stop daydreaming and get back to work!"

  2. 2
    have a daydream; indulge in a fantasy wordnet
  3. 3
    have dreamlike musings or fantasies while awake wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
dreamreverieabsence of mindabsentmindednessabsorptionabstractedness

Example

More examples

"When left to my own devices, I tend to daydream and get lost in a series of tangential thought patterns."

Etymology

From day + dream. Compare West Frisian deidream (“daydream”), Dutch dagdroom (“daydream”), German Tagtraum (“daydream”), Swedish dagdröm (“daydream”), Icelandic dagdraumur (“daydream”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.