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fantasy
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Illustration of an open book with fantasy characters emerging, including a knight with a shield, a wizard, a red dragon, an orc, and stars in the background.
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Alien planet, fantasy world, water, mountains
Fantasy Lands
A Mad Tea Party. Alice meets the March Hare and Mad Hatter in Lewis Carroll's "Adventures of Alice in Wonderland" (1865) by English illustrator and satirical artist Sir John Tenniel.
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Also spelled:
phantasy
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Illustration of an open book with fantasy characters emerging, including a knight with a shield, a wizard, a red dragon, an orc, and stars in the background.
Fantastical characters The genre of fantasy revolves around strangeness in setting and characters.

fantasy

narrative genre
Also known as: fantasy literature, phantasy
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fantasy, imaginative fiction that relies on strangeness of setting (such as other worlds or times) and of characters (such as supernatural or unnatural beings). Examples include William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1600), Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726), J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (1954-55), T.H. White’s The Once and Future King (1958), and Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015).

Science fiction can be seen as a form of fantasy, but the terms are not interchangeable, as science fiction usually is set in the future and is based on some aspect of science or technology, while fantasy is set in an imaginary world and features the magic of mythical beings. “Romantasy” is a subgenre that blends fantasy with elements of the romance novel genre; it became popular in the 21st century, pioneered by such writers as Maas and Rebecca Yarros.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by René Ostberg.