visionary

vision +‎ -ary

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvɪʒn̩(ə)ɹi/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvɪʒəˌnɛɹi/
• Hyphenation: vi‧sion‧ar‧y

visionary (comparative more visionary, superlative most visionary)

1. having vision or foresight
   • 1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Alexander Pope, page 163:

     No more theſe ſeenes my meditation aid, / Or lull to reſt the viſionary mind.

2. imaginary or illusory
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 291:

     To many, the visionary hope which is born of the imagination may seem the very mockery of nothing. We cannot imagine what we have never experienced.

   • 1836, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers:

     Here Mr. Jackson smiled once more upon the company; and, applying his left thumb to the tip of his nose, worked a visionary coffee-mill with his right hand, thereby performing a very graceful piece of pantomime (then much in vogue, but now, unhappily, almost obsolete) which was familiarly denominated taking a grinder.

3. prophetic or revelatory
   • 1727, James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Works of James Thomson, page 69:

     Here frequent, at the viſionary hour, / When muſing midnight reigns or ſilent noon, / Angelic harps are in full concert heard, / And voiced chaunting from the wood-crown’d hill, / The deepening dale, or inmoſt ſilvan glade […]

4. idealistic or utopian

   a visionary scheme or project

   • c. 1712, Jonathan Swift, “A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue”, in The Works of J.S., volume I, Dublin: George Faulkner, published 1735, page 187:

     I confeſs, the Merit of this Candour and Condeſcenſion is very much leſſened ; becauſe your Lordſhip hardly leaves us Room to offer our good Wiſhes ; removing all our Difficulties, and ſupplying our Wants, faſter than the moſt viſionary Projector can adjuſt his Schemes.

visionary (plural visionaries)

1. Someone who has visions; a seer.
2. An impractical dreamer.
3. Someone who has positive ideas about the future.
   • 2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 51:

     Robertson was finally asked to step down at the end of 1961. His successor would be Dr Beeching, who was seen as both visionary and axeman.