as in theoretical
dealing with or expressing a quality or idea
ideograms are ideational—they are meant to suggest some general idea and not a particular word or phrase
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Recent Examples of ideational
Constructivists’ major argument is that world politics is as much ideational as material and that relations among states depend on norms as much as on military or economic power.
—
Stacie E. Goddard, Foreign Affairs, 31 Oct. 2025
These ideational shifts, influenced by both global narratives and local aspirations, are increasingly shaping how Indians approach relationships.
—Anuradha Gupta, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2025
The ideational content of the image — a man killing another man on a public sidewalk — is only half the message.
—F.k. Plous, Chicago Tribune, 8 Jan. 2025
This process, which Doten-Snitker and her coauthors term ideational diffusion, often took many years as people in towns and cities needed time to digest new ideas about witchcraft and turn them into behavior.
—Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 8 Oct. 2024
Steven Spielberg extends Griffith’s and Ford’s historical insight through an astonishing mix of visual and ideational dialectics.
—Armond White, National Review, 28 June 2023
Stacie E. Goddard, Foreign Affairs, 31 Oct. 2025
These ideational shifts, influenced by both global narratives and local aspirations, are increasingly shaping how Indians approach relationships.
—Anuradha Gupta, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2025
The ideational content of the image — a man killing another man on a public sidewalk — is only half the message.
—F.k. Plous, Chicago Tribune, 8 Jan. 2025
This process, which Doten-Snitker and her coauthors term ideational diffusion, often took many years as people in towns and cities needed time to digest new ideas about witchcraft and turn them into behavior.
—Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 8 Oct. 2024
Steven Spielberg extends Griffith’s and Ford’s historical insight through an astonishing mix of visual and ideational dialectics.
—Armond White, National Review, 28 June 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ideational
Adjective
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Earlier theoretical work showed that combining spatial mode sorting with long-baseline interferometry could reach the true quantum limit for resolving two stars.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
21 Feb. 2026
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The firm’s Chapter 11 practice is intentionally selective, focusing on cases with realistic paths to confirmation rather than theoretical restructuring plans.—
Daniel Fusch,
USA Today,
20 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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The general thrust of the changes were to de-melodramatize Salieri’s action and to focus more attention on his guilt and metaphysical torment.—
Theater Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
18 Feb. 2026
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But, after Hume, liberals came increasingly to find even the barest invocation of metaphysical principles to be an embarrassment.—
Christopher Beha,
New Yorker,
14 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Series kicked off in the late 1990s, starting with Leaves, which included Calamus, Lily, Tea, Mint and Shiso, to give the conceptual idea of various leaves.—
Jennifer Weil,
Footwear News,
16 Feb. 2026
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Gartside tended to lead with the deconstructionist angle on his writing, and most critics seemed to take it as a given that all the lovey-dovey stuff was conceptual cleverness, a way of infiltrating pop and turning its lingua franca in on itself.—
Andy Cush,
Pitchfork,
15 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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The discussion about administrative and judicial warrants is not an abstract debate.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
16 Feb. 2026
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For Black Americans, this is not an abstract question.—
Ed Gaskin,
Boston Herald,
15 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Matcha delivers a steady boost of energy and improves mental focus through a combination of caffeine and the amino acid L-theanine.—
Lindsay Curtis,
Health,
16 Feb. 2026
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From mental aspects to the game, to the development on the younger stages, everyone has a theory, but no real solution.—
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
16 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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And at that point, ushered into the floating mists of non-consensus with murmurings of political unease regarding content or intellectual befuddlement regarding style, the briefly sighted, singular beast of language vanishes from the visible landscape.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
19 Feb. 2026
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Only the party of such intellectual giants as Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar and Eric Swalwell could conclude this is a logical course of action.—
Chris Roemer,
Baltimore Sun,
19 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Ideational.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ideational. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.
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