Meaning & use
wishful thinking
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
The act of believing something is true because you want it to be true, not because you have evidence.
Grammar: Uncountable: no plural and no article. You can say 'a piece of wishful thinking' if you need to count it.
Patterns
- be wishful thinking
- it is wishful thinking to do something
- dismiss something as wishful thinking
Hoping the rain will stop before the picnic is probably just wishful thinking.
His plan to finish the project in one day was pure wishful thinking.
She called the idea that everyone would agree wishful thinking.
Common combinations
- pure wishful thinking
- Believing he will change his mind is pure wishful thinking.
- just wishful thinking
- The hope that prices will drop is just wishful thinking.
- dismiss something as wishful thinking
- The scientist dismissed the theory as wishful thinking.
- a lot of wishful thinking
- There was a lot of wishful thinking in the company's sales forecast.
Synonyms and how they differ
- denial
- Denial is refusing to accept a fact, while wishful thinking is believing something pleasant without evidence.
- optimism
- Optimism is a general hope for good things; wishful thinking is a specific belief that ignores evidence.
Opposites
Commonly confused: wishful thinking or wishful?
wishful thinking vs wishful
Wishful is an adjective meaning 'having or showing a wish', but it is rarely used alone; the common phrase is wishful thinking.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'wishful thinking' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Wishful thinking is an uncountable noun and means believing something because you want it to be true. Option B uses it correctly as a noun phrase. Option A treats it as a countable object, which is wrong. Option C uses it as a verb, but it is a noun. Option D uses a plural form, which does not exist.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “wishful thinking”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.