fairy-tale

1 of 2

adjective

: characteristic of or suitable to a fairy tale
especially : marked by seemingly unreal beauty, perfection, luck, or happiness
led a fairy-tale life
a store clerk's fairy-tale romance

fairy tale

2 of 2

noun

1
a
: a story (as for children) involving fantastic forces and beings (such as fairies, wizards, and goblins)
enjoyed the fairy tale "The Little Mermaid"

called also fairy story

b
: a story in which improbable events lead to a happy ending
those balletic fairy tales in which a new corps member steps in for an injured principal at the last minute and delivers a splendid performanceMargaret Willis
2
: a made-up story usually designed to mislead
an old-fashioned fairy tale depicting revolutionists as demigodsJonathan Zimmerman

Examples of fairy-tale in a Sentence

Noun the fairy tale about the sleeping princess Everything he told us about his happy marriage was just a fairy tale.
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
The perfectly orchestrated fairy-tale grandeur (combined with copious media coverage) has fueled a longstanding fascination with the royals. Sydney Lake, Fortune, 13 Mar. 2024 The City of Angels is known for glitz and glamour, palm trees, celebrity sightings, and fairy-tale fantasies. Melanie Stetson Freeman, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 Feb. 2024 Reiner lives in their heads rent-free despite his immoral and immature mangling of fairy-tale morality. Armond White, National Review, 21 Feb. 2024 Lopez’s new album of competent pop R&B presents Affleck’s reemergence in her life as a fairy-tale culmination to her story, but the movie is more about interior milestones: loving oneself, healing one’s inner child, and other psychoanalytical concepts. Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 16 Feb. 2024 Disney is embracing a darker side of its fairy-tale world. Erin Clack, Peoplemag, 8 Feb. 2024 Half-spoofing the fairy-tale genre, TPB is full of trite showbizzy anachronisms that don’t require innocent audience belief but inspire snark. Armond White, National Review, 7 Feb. 2024 The swan, after all, is the national bird of this fairy-tale kingdom. Laird Borrelli-Persson, Vogue, 6 Feb. 2024 Trekking to a remote Swiss village to fulfill your fairy-tale dreams isn’t necessary when there’s already a magnificent castle hotel overlooking Switzerland's largest city. Annie Archer, Travel + Leisure, 30 Jan. 2024
Noun
Dance lovers of all ages will delight in the treasured fairy tale of a jealous Queen and her kind-hearted stepdaughter. The Enquirer, 7 Mar. 2024 Add a wicked Cate Blanchett and magical Helena Bonham-Carter, and Branagh has a new fairy tale classic on his hands. EW.com, 4 Mar. 2024 In this adaptation of the fairy tale, Goldilocks and the three bears live together in an isolated house in the woods. Leo Barraclough, Variety, 19 Feb. 2024 Unlike the often grim Grimm’s fairy tales of European ancestry, none of the morals of these stories are driven home with violence or punishment. Rob Hubbard, Twin Cities, 21 Jan. 2024 But her fairy tale experience with The One Bridal ended there. Andrea Klick, Kansas City Star, 27 Feb. 2024 What begins as an intriguing visit to a forbidding but fascinating past becomes the kind of perfunctorily moralistic fairy tale that Kahlen himself might scoff at, before getting back to work. Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 31 Jan. 2024 Lookout Mountain, on the border of Tennessee and Georgia, draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year with its wondrous rock formations and underground waterfall, which look like something out of a fairy tale. Dobrina Zhekova, Travel + Leisure, 29 Jan. 2024 Raising Arizona is a fairy tale that points out that no good guy is ever all good, and the bad guys are just flawed characters who were raised wrong. Tim Moffatt, EW.com, 26 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fairy-tale.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1904, in the meaning defined above

Noun

1635, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of fairy-tale was in 1635

Dictionary Entries Near fairy-tale

fairy stone

fairy-tale

fairy tale

Cite this Entry

“Fairy-tale.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fairy-tale. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

fairy tale

noun
1
: a simple children's story about imaginary beings

called also fairy story

2
: a made-up story usually meant to mislead
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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