Quixotic means being idealistic in a way that's impractical or unrealistic, pursuing noble goals that can't actually be achieved. The word comes from Don Quixote, a character in a famous Spanish novel who imagines himself a heroic knight and charges at windmills because he thinks they're giants.

When someone has a quixotic plan, they're chasing something admirable but impossible. A student might have a quixotic dream of reading every book ever written, or quixotic hopes of becoming friends with everyone in school. A quixotic quest to end all arguments in your family sounds wonderful, but arguments are part of how people work through disagreements.

The word suggests both courage and foolishness. There's something brave about quixotic efforts: the person genuinely wants to make things better. But there's also something misguided about them: they're not seeing reality clearly. Someone attempting a quixotic rescue mission might rush into danger without a real plan.

Some “impossible” things do eventually happen, and sometimes we need dreamers who imagine what seems impossible. But we also need to recognize when we're tilting at windmills instead of working on real problems.