English

Adjective

high fantasy ‎(comparative more high fantasy, superlative most high fantasy)

1. (psychology) Having a rich fantasy life; including having imaginary companions and playing pretend games.
   • 2004 June, Tanya Sharon, Jacqueline D. Woolley, “Do monsters dream? Young children’s understanding of the fantasy/reality distinction”, in British Journal of Developmental Psychology, volume 22, number 2, page 295:

     Some children are much more inclined than others to engage in fantastical pursuits, such as pretending or having an imaginary companion (Taylor, 1999). Such a high fantasy orientation (FO) could have great potential relevance to children’s beliefs in fantastical figures.

   • 2014, Peterson, Candida Clifford, “Preschoolers”, in Looking Forward Through the Lifespan, ISBN 9781442556942, page 237:

     Jerome Singer (1973) divided a group of children aged six to nine years into high-fantasy and low-fantasy groups on the basis of their frequency of playing pretend games as contrasted with other kinds of play

Noun

high fantasy ‎(countable and uncountable, plural high fantasies)

1. (uncountable) A subgenre of fantasy fiction set in a secondary world or fantasy world as opposed to the primary world or real world.
   • 2008, “Fantasy and Realism”, in Exploring Children's Literature, ISBN 9781446242759, page 120:

     Fantasy fiction has been categorized and described in different ways. One classification divides fantasy into two major types:¶ low fantasy, which takes place in the primary world (our world);¶ high fantasy, which takes place in alternative worlds.

   • 2009, Stableford, Brian, The A to Z of Fantasy Literature, ISBN 9780810863453, page 198:

     HIGH FANTASY. A term used by Lloyd Alexander in a 1971 essay on “High Fantasy and Heroic Romance" and subsequently developed by Kenneth J. Zahorski and Robert H. Boyer in an attempt to develop a terminology with which to deal with genre materials. In Zahorski and Boyer's taxonomy, high fantasy consists entirely of fiction set in second worlds, while the low fantasy with which it is immediately contrasted consists of fiction set in the primary world, into which magical objects and entities are introduced piecemeal (ie. intrusive fantasy).

2. (uncountable) A subgenre of fantasy fiction that focuses on universal events, instead of just those directly associated with the main characters.
   • 1997, Stoodt, Barbara, “Make-Believe”, in Children's Literature, ISBN 9780732940126, page 195:

     High fantasy is a complex, philosophical form of literature that focuses on themes such as the conflict between good and evil.

3. (countable) A work in this subgenre.

Antonyms

• low fantasy