idealism

noun

ide·​al·​ism ī-ˈdē-(ə-)ˌliz-əm 

ˈī-(ˌ)dē-

1

a

: the practice of forming ideals or living under their influence

b

: something that is idealized

2

a(1)

: a theory that ultimate reality lies in a realm transcending phenomena

(2)

: a theory that the essential nature of reality lies in consciousness or reason

b(1)

: a theory that only the perceptible is real

(2)

: a theory that only mental states or entities are knowable

3

: literary or artistic theory or practice that affirms the preeminent value of imagination as compared with faithful copying of nature compare realism

Examples of idealism in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The blend of idealism and hedonism gestures toward one last aspect of the exhibition — its lightness of spirit — which is captured as well in a photograph of the Bowl chair from the cover of Interiors magazine in 1953, reprinted on the show’s object label. —Michael Kimmelman Clement Pascal, New York Times, 3 Apr. 2024

The students rarely exhibited the kind of idealism that a Westerner associates with youth. —Peter Hessler, The New Yorker, 1 Apr. 2024

Even if these thinkers did not oppose the welfare state, Moyn argues, their rejection of liberal idealism set the stage for spiraling in equality and the assault on welfare in the generations that followed. —Helena Rosenblatt, Foreign Affairs, 20 Feb. 2024

Like Bill Devane’s Major Charles Rane in Rolling Thunder and Pam Grier’s Coffy, Statham’s Adam Clay is driven solely by vendetta, not idealism. —Giancarlo Sopo, National Review, 13 Jan. 2024

Herbert’s novel is a great juicy slab of a book, a meticulously detailed and enjoyably engrossing fantasy about belief and doubt, survival and struggle, idealism and nihilism. —Manohla Dargis, New York Times, 29 Feb. 2024

Films bask either in beauty or in crime, in blood, massacres, blissful idealism, the exoticization of the proletariat, Proust, Balzac, financial scandals, the patience of populations, the flourishing of hunger. —Elizabeth Barber, Harper's Magazine, 9 Feb. 2024

This nine-part series, produced by GBH News and reported and hosted by Ian Coss, excavates the whole fascinating story, with an eye toward understanding current-day cynicism and idealism about infrastructure. —Sarah Larson, The New Yorker, 27 Nov. 2023

But the issue of reconciling opposites relates to a final principle: soaring idealism and brutal realism can coexist. —Hal Brands, Foreign Affairs, 20 Feb. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1743, in the meaning defined at sense 2a(1)

Kids Definition

idealism

noun

ide·​al·​ism ī-ˈdē-(ə-)ˌliz-əm 

ˈī-(ˌ)dē-

: the practice of forming ideals or living under their influence

idealist

-(ə-)ləst

noun

idealistic

(ˌ)ī-ˌdē-(ə-)ˈlis-tik

ˌī-dē-

adjective

idealistically

-ti-k(ə-)lē

adverb