Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of, relating to, or having the nature of an idealist or idealism.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Relating or pertaining to the philosophical doctrine of idealism or to idealists.
- Belonging to an ideal or ideals; striving for or imagining ideal perfection or good: as, idealistic poetry or art; idealistic dreams.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or pertaining to idealists or their theories.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of or pertaining to an
idealist or toidealism .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective of or relating to the philosophical doctrine of the reality of ideas
- adjective of high moral or intellectual value; elevated in nature or style
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I use the term idealistic in a relative way only, for in God's universe the degrees of material progress of His children are infinite in number.
The Planet Mars and Its Inhabitants, a psychic revelation J. L. Kennon
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I use the term idealistic in a relative way only, for in God's universe the degrees of material progress of His children are infinite in number.
The Planet Mars And Its Inhabitants: A Psychic Revelation a Martian 1920
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In the economic field we made mistakes, which we call idealistic mistakes.
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Stogsdill explained that megalocracy is extremely unstable and can only exist in idealistic conditions for a few minutes before collapsing into anarchy.
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Might it be confirmation bias, where those invested in idealistic pre-conceptions about the way science works, choose to ignore or downplay these facts for political or metaphysical reasons?
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Of this it may first be said that a comment on idealistic is all very well, but the word at issue here is ideal.
Topping Shakespeare? Aspects of the Nobel Prize for Literature 1997
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The more sensitive, the more romantic, and the more idealistic is the young person of either sex, the more his or her soul craves for some kindred soul with whom the whole being can unite.
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Patrick Neville of the Bolden Area Command, where Nettleton was stationed, described the officer as "idealistic" -- a police officer who wanted to make the world a better place.
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It hasn’t shaken my support for Al, but I feel that it has undercut my ability to present him in idealistic terms as clearly differentiated from his opponents.
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It's hard to put on a poster, without looking vague and idealistic, which is exactly how the protesters tend to look.
Jay Michaelson: Six Things Liberal Critics Don't Understand About the Occupy Wall Street Protests Jay Michaelson 2011
dailyword commented on the word idealistic
This word was used in "Jackie Chan's First Strike" when the suspect was talking to Jackie.
June 13, 2012