dream

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable) Imaginary events seen in the mind while sleeping.
2. (countable, figuratively) A hope or wish.
3. A visionary scheme; a wild conceit; an idle fancy.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To see imaginary events in one's mind while sleeping.
2. (intransitive) To hope, to wish.
3. (intransitive) To daydream.
4. (transitive) To envision as an imaginary experience (usually when asleep).
5. (intransitive) To consider the possibility (of).

Adj

Ideal; perfect.

Synonyms

vision

imagine

daydream

wish

fancy

desire

fantasize

ambition

aspiration

reverie

sleep

😴

dreaming

have a dream

imagination

illusion

thought

💭

fantasy

hope

stargaze

intention

think

🤔

fantasise

muse

woolgather

woolgathering

pipe dream

plan

ideal

yearning

moon

🌔

meditate

imagining

realization

ruminate

see

👀

slumber

stupid

surprised

think to oneself

trance

visionary

visualize

waking dream

want

wishful thinking

wishing

dream about

dream a dream

druthers

mental picture

Translations

rêve

😴💭

sogno

😴💭

rêver

😴💭

Traum

😴💭

sueño

😴

träumen

😴💭

soñar

😴💭

όνειρο

sognare

😴💭

sonho

😴💭

droom

😴💭

sonhar

😴💭

ονειρεύομαι

dromen

😴💭

somni

😴💭

Pronounced as (IPA)

/dɹiːm/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: drem

Inherited from Old English: drēam

Cognate with Old Saxon: drōm

Cognate with Old Norse: draumr

Cognate with Scots: dreme

Cognate with Northern Frisian: drom

Cognate with Western Frisian: dream

Cognate with Low German: Droom

Cognate with Dutch: droom

Cognate with German: Traum

Cognate with Danish: -

Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål: drøm

Cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk: draum

Cognate with Swedish: dröm

Cognate with Icelandic: draumur

Cognate with Old Norse: draugr

Cognate with Dutch: bedrog

Cognate with German: Trug

Cognate with English: sweven

Cognate with Ancient Greek: ὕπνος

Inherited from Middle English: dremen

Inherited from Old English: drīeman

Cognate with Western Frisian: dreame

Cognate with Dutch: dromen

Cognate with German: träumen

Cognate with Swedish: drömma

Cognate with Icelandic: dreyma

In summary

From Middle English drem, from Old English drēam (“music, joy”), from Proto-West Germanic *draum, from Proto-Germanic *draumaz, from earlier *draugmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrowgʰ-mos, from *dʰrewgʰ- (“to deceive, injure, damage”).
The sense of "dream", though not attested in Old English, may still have been present (compare Old Saxon drōm (“bustle, revelry, jubilation", also "dream”)), and was undoubtedly reinforced later in Middle English by Old Norse draumr (“dream”), from same Proto-Germanic root.
Cognate with Scots dreme (“dream”), Saterland Frisian Droom (“dream”), West Frisian dream (“dream”), Dutch droom (“dream”), German Traum (“dream”), Limburgish Droum (“dream”), Luxembourgish Dram (“dream”), Yiddish טרוים (troym, “dream”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål drøm, Faroese dreymur (“dream”), Icelandic draumur (“dream”), Norwegian Nynorsk draum (“dream”), Swedish dröm (“dream”). Related also to Old Norse draugr (“ghost, undead, spectre”), Dutch bedrog (“deception, deceit”), German Trug (“deception, illusion”).
more details
The derivation from Old English drēam is controversial, since the word itself is only attested in writing in its meaning of “joy, mirth, musical sound”. Possibly there was a separate word drēam meaning “images seen while sleeping”, which was avoided in literature due to potential confusion with the “joy” sense. Otherwise, the modern sense must have been borrowed from another Germanic language, most probably Old Norse. Since this is the common sense in all Germanic languages outside the British isles, a spontaneous development from “joy, mirth” to “dream” in Middle English is hardly conceivable. In Old Saxon, the cognate drōm did mean “dream”, but was a rare word.
Attested words for “sleeping vision” in Old English, both of which appeared in The Dream of the Rood, were mǣting (Middle English mæte, mete), from an unclear source, and swefn (Modern English sweven), from Proto-Germanic *swefnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *swepno-, *swep-; compare Ancient Greek ὕπνος (húpnos, “sleep”).
The verb is from Middle English dremen, possibly (see above) from Old English drīeman (“to make a joyous sound with voice or with instrument; rejoice; sing a song; play on an instrument”), from Proto-Germanic *draumijaną, *draugmijaną (“to be festive, dream, hallucinate”), from the noun. Cognate with Scots dreme (“to dream”), Saterland Frisian drööme (“to dream”), West Frisian dreame (“to dream”), Dutch dromen (“to dream”), German träumen (“to dream”), Luxembourgish dreemen (“to dream”), Yiddish טרוימען (troymen, “to dream”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål drømme (“to dream”), Faroese droyma (“to dream”), Icelandic dreyma (“to dream”), Norwegian Nynorsk drømma, drømme, drøyma, drøyme (“to dream”), Swedish drömma (“to dream, muse”).

Sentences

The boy remembered his dream , and suddenly everything was clear to him .

Two years ago , right here on this spot , I had a recurrent dream , too .

I had the " everyone has Gary Busey's teeth " dream again .