Reverie
noun /ˈrevəri/ — A pleasant daydream you didn't plan to enter.
Definition
A state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts; a daydream.
Beyond the definition
The word for the state that happens before you realize it's happening. A reverie doesn't announce itself — you notice it from the inside, usually when something recalls you from it. A gentle, drifting cousin to meditation.
Origin & history
From French rêverie — dreaming, wandering thought (rêver 'to dream').
Example sentences
Illustrative sentences for learning, not verified community posts or sourced quotations.
She was lost in reverie, staring at the rain on the window without seeing it.
The music pulled him into a reverie about the summer they'd spent at the coast.
He emerged from his reverie to find the coffee cold and the room emptied.
How to use it
This entry uses a noun. Follow the examples for articles and singular or plural forms; not every noun takes “a” or “an.”
Choose “Reverie” when the meaning fits your context: A state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts; a daydream.
Synonyms
daydream, fantasy, trance, musing, woolgathering
Antonyms
alertness, attention, focus
Related words
Reverie vs daydream
A daydream is an imagined scenario — a pleasant fantasy about something desired or imagined. Reverie is less directed: it's the state of being gently absorbed in one's own thoughts, which may not involve a particular scenario at all. You have a daydream about a vacation; you fall into a reverie while staring out the window. Daydreaming is active; reverie is a state that happens to you.
Word in the Wild
Illustrative story: an imagined scene, not a documented event or interview.
She was supposed to be listening to the meeting. She was, externally, looking at the right person and nodding at the right intervals.
Inside she was somewhere entirely different — following a thought that had started with the word "tomorrow" and had arrived, without her permission, at a specific afternoon from when she was eleven years old, the smell of the classroom in June, the particular sound of children playing outside a window she couldn't see through.
She came back to the meeting. She had lost nothing important. But she understood, as she always did returning from these distances, that the mind has its own itinerary and will pursue it, with or without invitation.
Questions about this word
What does "Reverie" mean?
Reverie is noun meaning: A pleasant daydream you didn't plan to enter.. A state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts; a daydream.
Which words express “nostalgic but happy”?
Reverie — A pleasant daydream you didn't plan to enter.
Where does the word "Reverie" come from?
From French rêverie — dreaming, wandering thought (rêver 'to dream').