WikiWord

English

will-o'-the-wisp

noun

Meaning

  1. A strange light that attracts travellers from pathways into dangerous marshes or graveyards.
  2. A delusionary or otherwise unachievable goal that one feels compelled to pursue.

Etymology / origin

No prose etymology has been added yet.

No ancestor words have been linked yet.

Related words

Descendant words

No descendant words have been linked yet.

Sources

  1. DictionaryAPI.dev English dictionary data
will-o'-the-wisp — meaning and etymology | WikiWord