idealism
noun
Simple meaning
An approach to philosophical enquiry, which asserts that direct and immediate knowledge can only be had of ideas or mental pictures.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
eyedeelihzuhmSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
aɪˈdilɪzəm
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The property of a person of having high ideals that are usually unrealizable or at odds with practical life.
The practice or habit of giving or attributing ideal form or character to things; treatment of things in art or literature according to ideal standards or patterns;—opposed to realism.
philosophy
An approach to philosophical enquiry, which asserts that direct and immediate knowledge can only be had of ideas or mental pictures.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The property of a person of having high ideals that are usually unrealizable or at odds with practical life.
Used this way, idealism is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.