quixotic
adjective
Simple meaning
Resembling or characteristic of the Spanish chivalric hero Don Quixote.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kwihksahtikSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kwɪkˈsɑtɪk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Resembling or characteristic of the Spanish chivalric hero Don Quixote; possessed with or resulting from the desire to do noble and romantic deeds, without thought of realism and practicality.
Overly optimistic and moralistic.
Exceedingly idealistic.
Alternative letter-case form of quixotic.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Resembling or characteristic of the Spanish chivalric hero Don Quixote; possessed with or resulting from the desire to do noble and romantic deeds, without thought of realism and practicality.
Used this way, quixotic is a reasonably familiar word with a mildly favourable edge. It turns up most in relationships contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Relationships
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: resembling
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.