utopian

adjective, often capitalized uto·pi·an \ yu̇-ˈtō-pē-ən \

|Updated on: 29 Jul 2018

Definition of utopian

1 : of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a utopia; especially : having impossibly ideal conditions especially of social organization

2 : proposing or advocating impractically ideal social and political schemes

utopian idealists

3 : impossibly ideal : visionary

recognised the utopian nature of his hopes
—C. S. Kilby

4 : believing in, advocating, or having the characteristics of utopian socialism

utopian doctrines

utopian novels

Examples of utopian in a Sentence

a plan to revitalize the city's decaying downtown that proved to be overly ambitious and utopian

Recent Examples of utopian from the Web

His restaurant-slash-utopian-community TMIP, on another farm, in Michigan City, Ind., was shut down over permitting issues after a little more than a week.

— devra first, BostonGlobe.com, "What’s on the menu at Falmouth’s Buffalo Jump? ‘Weird food that only weirdos like’," 11 July 2018
Back in the '90s all of us were utopian about the internet.

— adam fisher, WIRED, "Sex, Beer, and Coding: Inside Facebook’s Wild Early Days," 10 July 2018
Eventually, the utopian community disbanded and Harris returned to New York, leaving the entire estate — about 2,000 acres — to Nagasawa.

— melissa hung /, NBC News, "Fires burned the legacy of California's historic 'wine king.' This winery wants to rebuild it.," 7 Jan. 2018
So the level of insanity to which the left devolves every day is a testament to how much President Trump us in their heads and a testament to how their utopian idealism under President Obama has absolutely collapsed.

— Fox News, "Nunes tightens screws in his probe into surveillance abuses," 3 July 2018
Employees are encouraged to make their work life synonymous with their social identity, and many internalize those utopian ideals.

— nitasha tiku, WIRED, "Why Tech Worker Dissent Is Going Viral," 29 June 2018
But the early utopian ideal faded as Moshe tightened his grip.

— jeff truesdell, PEOPLE.com, "4 Things You’ll Learn About the Murderous Nation of Yahweh on People Magazine Investigates: Cults," 22 June 2018
Elon Musk comes from an age where the promise of the open web was utopian and also deeply capitalistic.

— adrienne lafrance, The Atlantic, "Elon Musk Should Know Better," 29 May 2018
Today, just having a reliable subway system appears utopian.

— alan wolfe, The New Republic, "A Most Violent Year," 18 May 2018

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

Did You Know?

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?