utopia

noun uto·pia \ yu̇-ˈtō-pē-ə \

|Updated on: 15 Jun 2018

Examples: utopia in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

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

Writers such as Anthony Burgess, Kurt Vonnegut and Ayn Rand were in his debt, as are more recent novels by Kazuo Ishiguro and Octavia Butler that take up his inquiry into utopia and its shortcomings.

— The Economist, "An eerie dystopian prophecy by a disillusioned Bolshevik," 31 May 2018
Tech is great at promising to build a new utopia, but increasing housing starts requires a much more humble effort.

— patrick sisson, Curbed, "Can tech outsmart the housing shortage?," 29 May 2018
By definition the absolutism of utopia—a society in which everything is absolutely right— evokes the same absolutism with which a totalitarian society replaces any semblance of a moral compass.

— steve erickson, Los Angeles Magazine, "HBO’s Fahrenheit 451 Reveals a Blurred Line Between Utopia and Hell," 16 May 2018
The band’s canon of 1960s classics forged a new chapter in Americana, stoking fantasies of a beach utopia for generations of landlocked listeners across the globe.

— jordan runtagh, PEOPLE.com, "The Beach Boys in Their Own Words: America's Band Tells the Tales Behind Their Pop Masterpieces," 8 June 2018
Maybe the Bundys came here to escape from the government and create their own libertarian utopia.

— leah sottile, Longreads, "Bundyville Chapter Four: The Gospel of Bundy," 18 May 2018
How would Euripides have responded to Plato, his Athenian contemporary, concerning the philosopher’s banishing poets from his utopia?

— rebecca newberger goldstein, New York Times, "Erasmus vs. Luther — a Rift That Defined the Course of Western Civilization," 29 Mar. 2018
And hygge was a delicious, multisensorial utopia full of Fair Isle sweaters, cups of hot cocoa, and candles by the fireplace.

— laura norkin, Glamour, "‘Päntsdrunk’ Is the Scandinavian Wellness Trend We Need Right Now," 29 May 2018
Employers have created nearly 10,000 manufacturing jobs during the past two years, making Elkhart a virtual utopia straight out of President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign message that the economic future belongs to Americans who build things.

— james briggs, Indianapolis Star, "Trump, Pence to boost Braun's campaign at rally in Elkhart, where jobs are booming," 10 May 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.