utopia

noun uto·pia \ yu̇-ˈtō-pē-ə \

Updated on: 7 Apr 2018

Definition of utopia

1 often capitalized : a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions

2 : an impractical scheme for social improvement

3 : an imaginary and indefinitely remote place

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Examples of utopia in a Sentence

The town's founders wanted to create a Christian utopia.
It's a nice place to live, but it's no Utopia.

Recent Examples of utopia from the Web

If the utopia that was meant to be America by its early settlers has failed, my guess is that Mr. Fraser would argue this is no reason to eschew the dream of utopianism generally.

— joseph epstein, WSJ, "‘Class Matters’ Review: The American Dream as Nightmare," 22 Mar. 2018
Both men seem to believe that romantic rhetoric (about steel mills churning on the banks of the Allegheny, a progressive utopia taking root on the banks of the Hudson) is itself the endpoint of governing.

— alexander nazaryan, Newsweek, "Donald Trump of New York: How ‘Resistance’ Leader Bill de Blasio Became City Hall’s Very Own Trump," 21 Mar. 2018
Pinker’s vision of a utopia of lifestyle choices might convince people who already believe that universal progress will involve ample e-commerce and plane travel.

— samuel moyn, The New Republic, "Hype for the Best," 19 Mar. 2018
And the idea that any of them will transform into a glittering digital utopia overnight without huge infusions of capital is pretty foolish.

— andrew j. hawkins, The Verge, "Become a parking savant with Sidewalk Labs’ new curb visualization tool," 19 Mar. 2018
This future utopia is one in which children who can pass for white still exist among their tanner peers, but those with dark skin and tightly coiled hair do not.

— lauren michele jackson, Daily Intelligencer, "National Geographic Replaces Racist Fictions With Post-racial Fantasies," 16 Mar. 2018
The company’s expectation had little to do with the movie’s groundbreaking depiction of a black superhero from an African utopia.

— matthew townsend, Bloomberg.com, "Hasbro Bet on ‘Black Panther’ Because Kids Said It Was Cool," 27 Feb. 2018
That utopia is Norwich, Vermont, a charming town with roughly 3,000 residents.

— isabel fattal, The Atlantic, "How to Parent an Olympic Athlete," 8 Feb. 2018
To achieve global utopia, every country on the list would need to meet all of its citizens’ needs without exceeding its share of planetary resources.

— cathleen o'grady, Ars Technica, "If we gave everyone a decent standard of living, could we sustain it?," 6 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'utopia.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

In 1516, English humanist Sir Thomas More published a book titled Utopia. It compared social and economic conditions in Europe with those of an ideal society on an imaginary island located off the coast of the Americas. More wanted to imply that the perfect conditions on his fictional island could never really exist, so he called it Utopia, a name he created by combining the Greek words ou (meaning "no, not") and topos (meaning "place," a root used in our word topography). The earliest generic use of utopia was for an imaginary and indefinitely remote place. The current use of utopia, referring to an ideal place or society, was inspired by More's description of Utopia's perfection.