as in romantic
having or marked by a tendency to be guided more by ideals than by reality
an idealist attempt to make a go of a mom-and-pop hardware store on Main Street
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in dreamer
one whose conduct is guided more by the image of perfection than by the real world
an idealist sees the best in everyone, regardless of how they behave
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of idealist
Marco Della Cava, USA TODAY, 8 Sep. 2024
The film’s first trailer released on Monday, featuring Adam Driver as an idealist architect up against Giancarlo Esposito as a pragmatist mayor.
—Zoe G Phillips, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2024
Bob Mondello, NPR, 2 Apr. 2025
The demographics have shifted from young idealists to seasoned veterans grappling with institutional weight and responsibility.
—Boaz Sobrado, Forbes.com, 27 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for idealist
Adjective
The movie stars Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina, an idealist architect with the power to control time, who is determined to rebuild a city that seems like New York after an accident plunges it into ruins.
—Marco Della Cava, USA TODAY, 8 Sep. 2024
The film’s first trailer released on Monday, featuring Adam Driver as an idealist architect up against Giancarlo Esposito as a pragmatist mayor.
—Zoe G Phillips, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2024
Noun
And the film ends, not with glory for its title idealist, but with chaos, and the president of the Senate smiling smugly to himself.
—Bob Mondello, NPR, 2 Apr. 2025
The demographics have shifted from young idealists to seasoned veterans grappling with institutional weight and responsibility.
—Boaz Sobrado, Forbes.com, 27 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for idealist
Recent Examples of Synonyms for idealist
Adjective
-
Benfica would be the destination to warm the heart above all others, but as was demonstrated this summer, modern football’s market forces generally push players away from such romantic reunions.—
Liam Twomey,
New York Times,
2 Aug. 2025
-
Control issues masquerade behind romantic promises as Venus and Pluto clash.—
USA TODAY,
USA Today,
2 Aug. 2025
Noun
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And then there have been the Jamaican dreamers, most notably the Jamaican bobsled team, the subject of the 1993 Disney move Cool Runnings.—
Ira Winderman,
Sun Sentinel,
4 Aug. 2025
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The only Hollywood-on-Hollywood films that tended to score with audiences were built on starry-eyed dreamers achieving their dreams of stardom on the screen, and Sunset Boulevard was the antithesis of that.—
Scott Huver,
People.com,
3 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
The idealistic and naively optimistic Superman walks right into the trap.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
11 July 2025
-
Humanitarian workers—many idealistic and committed—fear that sounding the alarm will end operations altogether.—
Nicholas Creel,
MSNBC Newsweek,
10 July 2025
Adjective
-
Researchers note that due to terrain and cost challenges, large-scale machines are often impractical, prompting research into compact, robotic pruning solutions.—
Jill Barth,
Forbes.com,
5 Aug. 2025
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Because reaching 75 local prosecutors around the state on short notice was impractical, Moody opted to hear unopposed arguments from Southern Legacy of Life, formerly known as ARORA (Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency), before issuing the temporary injunction.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
4 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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There is something utopian about the possibilities revealed by the Tichborne case—for social disruption and reinvention, even though, in the end, Orton was revealed to be Orton.—
Nell Stevens
August 4,
Literary Hub,
4 Aug. 2025
-
Otherwise a standard-issue suburb, East Aurora was the home of a utopian Arts and Crafts guild, the Roycrofters.—
Dan Chiasson,
New Yorker,
4 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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When these systems prioritize power, resource control, or ideological purity over human well-being, suffering becomes an inevitable byproduct.—
Cornelia C. Walther,
Forbes.com,
26 July 2025
-
Kagan offered potential insight into why the court has split along ideological lines on some of those cases.—
Maureen Groppe,
USA Today,
25 July 2025
Adjective
-
The quixotic quarterback decision that sealed the end.—
Seth Emerson,
New York Times,
30 July 2025
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My lab has been on a decade-long quixotic adventure to study awake infants with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a form of brain imaging that can measure activity from regions deep in the brain such as the hippocampus.—
Nick Turk-Browne,
Scientific American,
28 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Idealist.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/idealist. Accessed 8 Aug. 2025.
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