: 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
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 performance—
Margaret Willis
Margaret Willis2
: a made-up story usually designed to mislead
an old-fashioned fairy tale depicting revolutionists as demigods—Jonathan Zimmerman
Jonathan ZimmermanSynonyms
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 WebBooth Moore, WWD, 25 Sep. 2024
News of Chigvintsev’s divorce from Garcia furthermore ended what appeared to be a reality TV-style fairy-tale romance, involving the two celebrities, who met while appearing together on the show.
—Martha Ross, The Mercury News, 24 Sep. 2024
Janey Tracey, EW.com, 22 Sep. 2024
The aesthetic of the film was subordinate to our understanding of the fairy tale world.
—Leo Barraclough, Variety, 18 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for fairy-tale 
Adjective
At New York Fashion Week earlier this month, the designer returned to the Upper East Side for his spring show, taking over a ballroom at The Pierre hotel and turning it into a magical forest for his fairy-tale collection.
—Booth Moore, WWD, 25 Sep. 2024
News of Chigvintsev’s divorce from Garcia furthermore ended what appeared to be a reality TV-style fairy-tale romance, involving the two celebrities, who met while appearing together on the show.
—Martha Ross, The Mercury News, 24 Sep. 2024
Noun
From Ned’s quaint bakery to the bright autumn colors that fill the screen, Pushing Daisies feels like a pretty (and perverse) fairy tale.
—Janey Tracey, EW.com, 22 Sep. 2024
The aesthetic of the film was subordinate to our understanding of the fairy tale world.
—Leo Barraclough, Variety, 18 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for fairy-tale
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.
Dictionary Entries Near fairy-tale
Cite this Entry
“Fairy-tale.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fairy-tale. Accessed 5 Oct. 2024.
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