Idealism

//ʌɪˈdɪəlɪz(ə)m// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The property of a person of having high ideals that are usually unrealizable or at odds with practical life. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    elevated ideals or conduct; the quality of believing that ideals should be pursued wordnet
  3. 3
    The practice or habit of giving or attributing ideal form or character to things; treatment of things in art or literature according to ideal standards or patterns;—opposed to realism. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    impracticality by virtue of thinking of things in their ideal form rather than as they really are wordnet
  5. 5
    An approach to philosophical enquiry, which asserts that direct and immediate knowledge can only be had of ideas or mental pictures. countable, uncountable
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  1. 6
    (philosophy) the philosophical theory that ideas are the only reality wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
absolute idealismanimatismanimismarchetypeartaspiration

Example

More examples

"There is also one type of idealism that says even without strength or intelligence you can do anything if you can merely persist."

Etymology

First attested 1796, from ideal + -ism.

Related phrases

absolute idealismepistemological idealismmetaphysical idealismtranscendental idealism

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.