Dreams · the dictionary

The symbols of your nights, from A to Z.

Fifty of the most-dreamt symbols, read in three lights: the psychology of the dream, the traditions, and the question the symbol asks of you. No dogma, no fortune-telling.

Dreaming about a baby Dreaming of a baby places in your arms what has just begun: a project, a relationship, a life stage not yet able to fend for itself.
Dreaming about a bear Dreaming of a bear stages a massive, ambivalent power: the animal that protects like a mother and the one that charges without warning.
Dreaming about a car Brakes that no longer respond, a wheel that slips away, a car driven by someone else: the car dream is one of the most widespread anxiety scenarios of motorized societies.
Dreaming about a cat Dreaming of a cat summons an animal that sets its own distance: it comes, it goes, it owes no one anything.
Dreaming about a church A church full or deserted, a door you dare not push open, a nave in ruins: this setting visits believers as much as those who have not set foot in a church since childhood.
Dreaming about a crowd Dreaming of a crowd is finding yourself in the middle of numbers: carried by a human tide, stuck in a packed corridor, or so anonymous you disappear.
Dreaming about a dog Dreaming of a dog brings trust into play: the trust we give, the trust we receive, the trust that sometimes bites.
Dreaming about a ghost Dreaming of a ghost covers two very different experiences: the familiar deceased who returns to speak, and the anonymous presence that chills a room.
Dreaming about a horse Dreaming of a horse puts the question of drive in the saddle: the force that carries, that we steer or that escapes.
Dreaming about a house The house is one of the most frequent settings of the dream: a childhood home found again, rooms that do not exist, walls that shift.
Dreaming about a mouse Small, quick, barely glimpsed: the mouse rarely makes spectacular dreams, and that is precisely its telling way.
Dreaming about a rat The dreamed rat leaves no one neutral: disgust, recoil, sometimes an old fear.
Dreaming about a shark The shark dream has a recognisable signature: the threat stays beneath the surface, visible yet never quite graspable.
Dreaming about a storm Dreaming of a storm is rarely dreaming of a sky already unleashed: most often, it is approaching.
Dreaming about a stranger Dreaming of a stranger is one of the most ordinary experiences of sleep: in studies that count dream characters, nearly half are figures the dreamer does not recognize.
Dreaming about a train Dreaming of a train, and above all of missing it, belongs to the small repertoire of dreams almost everyone has one day.
Dreaming about a wedding Dreaming of a wedding stages a commitment: to a person, a project, a life you choose.
Dreaming about a wolf Dreaming of a wolf wakes an animal you have probably never crossed: the one from the tales, learned long before you could read.
Dreaming about airplanes Dreaming of a plane condenses two things the night loves to work on: momentum (leaving the ground, gaining altitude) and control handed to others (the dreamer is a passenger, the pilot invisible).
Dreaming about birds Dreaming of a bird lifts the gaze upward: the animal that moves between sky and ground carries whatever wants to rise, leave or arrive.
Dreaming about blood Dreaming of blood grips you, and that is its function: the dream picks the most loaded image the body knows to speak of what is vital.
Dreaming about death Death in a dream, yours, a loved one’s, a stranger’s, is a universal motif and far more ordinary than we think.
Dreaming about falling The fall is one of the most universal dreams there is: we drop from a roof, into the void, down a staircase that gives way, and waking often arrives mid-jolt.
Dreaming about fire Dreaming of fire is among the most widespread dreams: a blaze that spreads, a burning house, flames you can no longer control.
Dreaming about fish Dreaming of fish tilts the gaze over an inhabited water: something lives beneath the surface, visible yet ungraspable.
Dreaming about lice The lice dream blends disgust, itching and impossible arithmetic: there are always too many.
Dreaming about money Dreaming about money rarely speaks of money.
Dreaming about school Finding yourself back at school at an adult age, with a timetable you cannot find and a room that does not exist: the school dream is among the most shared settings of the dream, decades after the last bell.
Dreaming about snakes The snake is one of the most frequent animals in dreams, and one of the most loaded: fear, fascination, disgust, sometimes attraction.
Dreaming about spiders The spider ranks among the most frequent animals in dreams, especially for those it already unsettles awake.
Dreaming about stairs To dream of stairs is to dream of a passage between two levels: an endless climb, a descent to a cellar, steps that give way underfoot.
Dreaming about the sea Dreaming of the sea is among the most widespread water dreams: a glassy sea contemplated from the shore, an open water that pulls, a depth you sense without seeing.
Dreaming about water Water moves through dreams in every form: a still sea, a rising wave, a flood, rain, clear or murky water.
Dreaming about waves Dreaming of waves, and above all of a giant wave rearing up, is one of the most reported water scenarios.
Dreaming about your ex Dreaming of your ex is so common that researchers made it a category of its own.
Dreaming of a flood To dream of a flood is almost always to dream of a familiar place the water invades: the house, the bedroom, the office.
Dreaming of an old love Dreaming of an old love is not dreaming of last year’s ex: it is seeing a story from ten, twenty, thirty years ago resurface, sometimes a first love, sometimes a story that never really happened.
Dreaming of being chased Someone, or something, chases the dreamer: they run, their legs weigh a ton, and the pursuer often has no face.
Dreaming of being late Dreaming of being late sits near the top of the typical dreams recorded by surveys: most adults have had it, many have it regularly.
Dreaming of being lost Dreaming of being lost, in an unknown city, an endless building, a forest closing in, ranks among the most reported dreams in the world.
Dreaming of being naked Finding yourself naked at work, in the street, in the middle of a meeting, and the most unsettling part is not the nudity: it is that no one, often, seems to notice it.
Dreaming of being pregnant Dreaming of being pregnant does not predict a pregnancy.
Dreaming of cheating Catching your partner with someone else, or kissing a stranger yourself: the cheating dream is among the most frequent for people in a relationship, and among the most clinging on waking.
Dreaming of failing an exam Arriving late, the room has changed, nothing has been revised, the page stays blank: the failed-exam dream is among the most shared typical dreams in the world, and it visits mostly those who finished their studies long ago.
Dreaming of flying Dreaming of flying, as in soaring and not as in stealing, is among the most universal dreams: most people have had it at least once, on every continent.
Dreaming of losing something Dreaming of losing an object, a phone, keys, a wallet, a piece of luggage, is one of the most reported worry scenarios.
Dreaming of losing your hair Dreaming of losing your hair, by handfuls or in patches, touches self-image at its most visible point: what others see before a word is even said.
Dreaming of losing your teeth Losing your teeth in a dream is one of the most reported scenarios in the world: they crumble, fall one by one, or come loose in your hand.
Dreaming of someone who has died Dreaming of a person who has died is one of the most universal dream experiences, especially in the months and years after a loss.
Dreaming of teeth falling out Teeth that fall out in dreams crumble, loosen or tumble out while you speak: a scenario reported on every continent.