C. S. Kilby
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In 1516 Thomas More published Utopia, a description of a fictional island in the Atlantic with an ideal society, in order to draw a sharp contrast with the disorderly political situation of his own time. He created the name from topos ("place") and ou, Greek for "no", since he was well aware that nowhere so perfect was likely to exist on earth. People have long dreamed of creating utopian communities; some of them have joined communes, societies where other idealists like themselves have chosen to live in a cooperative way according to certain principles. Not just communes but plans of all kinds have been labeled utopian by critics. But we can dream, can't we?
Synonyms
Examples of utopian in a Sentence
Matthew Continetti, National Review, 30 Mar. 2024
No wonder meditation is so popular in tech, an industry in which the persistent effort to increase market share often sails under utopian language about connecting the world, obliterating human limitations, and making life for all beings unimaginably great.
—Meghan O'Gieblyn, WIRED, 25 Mar. 2024
Nearly three hours southwest is New Harmony, the site of two of America's early utopian communities, established in the early 1800s and dissolved by 1827.
—The Indianapolis Star, 12 Mar. 2024
One way of hearing her: all the land and space and ease she was denied in life because of her color became in song a dream of leisure, movement, reflection—a place to be that is boundless, utopian, up in the air.
—Elizabeth Barber, Harper's Magazine, 2 Feb. 2024
Sinclair’s utopian dream of a postindustrial society based on leisure and marijuana never went beyond a small group of collaborators.
—Bill McGraw, Detroit Free Press, 2 Apr. 2024
The story was set in a fantastical past, but its cast looked like a utopian 21st-century London, with actors of British and Caribbean and Asian backgrounds all stirred together.
—Kabir Chibber, New York Times, 31 Mar. 2024
But their utopian existence comes under attack when their favorite crop begins to die.
—Mary Carole McCauley, Baltimore Sun, 26 Jan. 2024
As for Shirley, her utopian dream is making people think change is possible.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 22 Mar. 2024
Irina Ivanova, Fortune, 30 Aug. 2023
But outside the Dorado Beach gates, life is far from a utopian as the decades-long crisis makes essential services, employment, and wealth inaccessible to locals, leaving Puerto Ricans unable to thrive at home.
—Frances Solá-Santiago, refinery29.com, 3 May 2021
Both technologies promise even more strife between the health foods crowd and Silicon Valley techno-utopians.
—Adrienne Bitar, Time, 28 Nov. 2019
Did Ivrea’s lefty techno-utopians run afoul of Uncle Sam?
—Julian Lucas, Harper's magazine, 25 Nov. 2019
Early cyberspace utopians thought censorship would soon be obsolete: the internet would treat it as a broken node and route around it.
—The Economist, 14 June 2019
Then there were all those annoying Tolstoyans—vegetarians, fruit-juice drinkers, utopians of every stripe—her husband encouraged to hang around the house.
—Joseph Epstein, WSJ, 11 May 2018
For now, the local government seems receptive toward the crypto utopians; the governor will speak at their blockchain summit conference, called Puerto Crypto, in March.
—Nellie Bowles, New York Times, 2 Feb. 2018
There have always been plenty of intellectuals and other utopians who ignore this basic truth, of course.
—Elliot Kaufman, National Review, 28 July 2017
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'utopian.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near utopian
Cite this Entry
“Utopian.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/utopian. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.
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