will-o'-the-wisp

1. 1.

   a pale light sometimes seen at night over marshy ground

   Synonymsfriar's lanternignis fatuusjack-o'-lantern

   Broaderlight
2. 2.

   an illusion that misleads

   Synonymsignis fatuus

   Broaderillusion

Questions about will-o'-the-wisp

What does will-o'-the-wisp mean?

will-o'-the-wisp means "a pale light sometimes seen at night over marshy ground". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in will-o'-the-wisp?

will-o'-the-wisp has 4 syllables: wil-l-o'--the--wisp. The stress falls on "l-o'-".

What is another word for will-o'-the-wisp?

Close synonyms include friar's lantern, ignis fatuus, jack-o'-lantern, ignis fatuus. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is will-o'-the-wisp a common word?

will-o'-the-wisp is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.