magical thinking
magical thinking noun: the attribution of causal or synchronistic relationships between actions and events which seemingly cannot be justified by reason and observation.
Noun
magical thinking (uncountable)
- The attribution of causal or synchronistic relationships between actions and events which seemingly cannot be justified by reason and observation.
- But, at first, by mere magical thinking […] Omens are gradually separated from ordinary probable signs […] as necessary infallible signs (or tendencies) if cunning can find them out, connected by some supernatural law with the unknown future that certainly awaits us, and as a kind of Magic.1920, Carveth Read, The Origin of Man and of his Superstitions
- “What we see in the UK paper is a lot of magical thinking about how an invisible border would work in the future,” said the senior EU official, giving the most detailed response yet from Brussels on the recent series of papers that emerged from Whitehall.2017 August 25, Jennifer Rankin, “UK accused of 'magical thinking' over Brexit plan for Irish border”, in The Guardian
Examples of magical thinking in a sentence
- This magical thinking feels as if it really might catch on / Mama wants some answers / Do you remember where it all went wrong?2018, Alex Turner, “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino”, performed by Arctic Monkeys:
- What Harry does not realise, however, is that his magical thinking about Diana’s “disappearance” extends to multiple other aspects of his life.2023 January 17, Tina Brown, “Spare by Prince Harry review – magical thinking in Montecito”, in The Guardian:
Forms of magical thinking
| alternative uncommon | magic thinking |
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Questions about magical thinking
- What does magical thinking mean?
- Magical thinking means the attribution of causal or synchronistic relationships between actions and events which seemingly cannot be justified by reason and observation.
- How do you use magical thinking in a sentence?
- This magical thinking feels as if it really might catch on / Mama wants some answers / Do you remember where it all went wrong?
- What part of speech is magical thinking?
- Magical thinking is a noun.
Words near magical thinking in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: magical thinking (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “magical thinking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/magical_thinking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.