: 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
Don't fall for the fairy tale going around that offshore drilling will lessen our dependence on foreign oil …—Reginald T. Dogan
Reginald T. DoganExamples 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
Zoë Haylock, Vulture, 27 Apr. 2026
Tucked up against the northeast side of the rugged Julian Alps near the Austrian border, Lake Bled comes complete with a sweeping alpine panorama, a cliff-hanging medieval castle, a lazy lakeside promenade, and a fairy-tale island topped with a church.
—Tribune Content Agency, Baltimore Sun, 8 Apr. 2026
Bethy Squires, Vulture, 30 Apr. 2026
Nostalgia for the days of standards and bullet-stopping September issues mixes with handwringing over the state of magazines, media outlets, and the overall environment that sold the original Devil Wears Prada as a fairy tale.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 29 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for fairy-tale
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Adjective
Not really a fairy-tale ending, but one that shows her growth and accountability.
—Zoë Haylock, Vulture, 27 Apr. 2026
Tucked up against the northeast side of the rugged Julian Alps near the Austrian border, Lake Bled comes complete with a sweeping alpine panorama, a cliff-hanging medieval castle, a lazy lakeside promenade, and a fairy-tale island topped with a church.
—Tribune Content Agency, Baltimore Sun, 8 Apr. 2026
Noun
Maybe that’s why this new movie — in which billionaires, to paraphrase fellow Fox property Homer Simpson, are the cause of and solution to most of life’s problems — winds up feeling like even more of a fairy tale than the original.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 30 Apr. 2026
Nostalgia for the days of standards and bullet-stopping September issues mixes with handwringing over the state of magazines, media outlets, and the overall environment that sold the original Devil Wears Prada as a fairy tale.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 29 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for fairy-tale
Cite this Entry
“Fairy-tale.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fairy-tale. Accessed 4 May. 2026.
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