visionary
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈvɪʒn̩(ə)ɹi/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈvɪʒəˌnɛɹi/
- Hyphenation: vi‧sion‧ar‧y
Adjective[edit]
visionary (comparative more visionary, superlative most visionary)
- having vision or foresight
- 1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Alexander Pope, page 163:
- No more theſe ſeenes my meditation aid, / Or lull to reſt the viſionary mind.
- imaginary or illusory
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 291:
- To many, the visionary hope which is born of the imagination may seem the very mockery of nothing. We cannot imagine what we have never experienced.
- 1836, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers:
- Here Mr. Jackson smiled once more upon the company; and, applying his left thumb to the tip of his nose, worked a visionary coffee-mill with his right hand, thereby performing a very graceful piece of pantomime (then much in vogue, but now, unhappily, almost obsolete) which was familiarly denominated taking a grinder.
- prophetic or revelatory
- 1727, James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Works of James Thomson, page 69:
- Here frequent, at the viſionary hour, / When muſing midnight reigns or ſilent noon, / Angelic harps are in full concert heard, / And voiced chaunting from the wood-crown’d hill, / The deepening dale, or inmoſt ſilvan glade […]
- idealistic or utopian
- a visionary scheme or project
- c. 1712, Jonathan Swift, “A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue”, in The Works of J.S., volume I, Dublin: George Faulkner, published 1735, page 187:
- I confeſs, the Merit of this Candour and Condeſcenſion is very much leſſened ; becauſe your Lordſhip hardly leaves us Room to offer our good Wiſhes ; removing all our Difficulties, and ſupplying our Wants, faſter than the moſt viſionary Projector can adjuſt his Schemes.
Translations[edit]
having vision or foresight
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imaginary or illusory
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prophetic or revelatory
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idealistic or utopian
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Noun[edit]
visionary (plural visionaries)
- Someone who has visions; a seer.
- An impractical dreamer.
- Someone who has positive ideas about the future.
- 2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 51:
- Robertson was finally asked to step down at the end of 1961. His successor would be Dr Beeching, who was seen as both visionary and axeman.
Translations[edit]
someone who has visions
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impractical dreamer
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someone who has positive ideas for the future
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