idealism

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: i=de=al=ism

CIDE DICTIONARY

idealism, n. [Cf. F. idéalisme.].

•  The quality or state of being ideal.  [1913 Webster]
•  Conception of the ideal; imagery.  [1913 Webster]
•  The system or theory that denies the existence of material bodies, and teaches that we have no rational grounds to believe in the reality of anything but ideas and their relations.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
•  a belief in the feasibility of the implementation of ideal principles and noble goals, and the practice or habit of pursuing such goals; -- opposed to realism and cynicism.  [PJC]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

idealism, n.
1 the practice of forming or following after ideals, esp. unrealistically (cf. REALISM).
2 the representation of things in ideal or idealized form.
3 imaginative treatment.
4 Philos. any of various systems of thought in which the objects of knowledge are held to be in some way dependent on the activity of mind (cf. REALISM).

Derivative

idealist n. idealistic adj. idealistically adv.

Etymology

F id{eacute}alisme or G Idealismus (as IDEAL)

THESAURUS

idealism

Berkeleianism, Geistesgeschichte, Hegelian idea, Hegelianism, Kantian idea, Kantianism, Neoplatonism, Platonic form, Platonic idea, Platonism, absolute idealism, animatism, animism, archetype, aspiration, autism, autistic thinking, bigheartedness, bigness, chivalrousness, chivalry, complex idea, dereism, dereistic thinking, dream, dreamery, elevation, errantry, eternal object, eternal universal, exaltation, exemplar, flight of fancy, form, formal cause, generosity, generousness, great heart, greatheartedness, greatness, greatness of heart, heroism, high goal, high-mindedness, highest category, history of ideas, hylozoism, ideal, ideality, idealization, ideals, ideate, ideatum, idee-force, imaginative exercise, immaterialism, impracticality, innate idea, knight-errantry, knightliness, largeheartedness, liberality, liberalness, loftiness, magnanimity, magnanimousness, materialism, metaphysical idealism, model, monistic idealism, nobility, noble-mindedness, nobleness, noosphere, noumenon, openhandedness, panpsychism, pattern, percept, personalism, play of fancy, princeliness, prototype, psychism, quixotism, quixotry, reaching high, regulative first principle, romance, romanticism, simple idea, solipsism, spiritualism, subjectivism, sublimity, subsistent form, the Absolute, the Absolute Idea, the Self-determined, the realized ideal, transcendent idea, transcendent nonempirical concept, transcendent universal, transcendental, universal, universal concept, universal essence, unpracticalness, unrealism, unreality, upward looking, utopianism, visionariness, wish fulfillment, wish-fulfillment fantasy, wishful thinking

ROGET THESAURUS

idealism

Intellect

N intellect, mind, understanding, reason, thinking principle, rationality, cogitative faculties, cognitive faculties, discursive faculties, reasoning faculties, intellectual faculties, faculties, senses, consciousness, observation, percipience, intelligence, intellection, intuition, association of ideas, instinct, conception, judgment, wits, parts, capacity, intellectuality, genius, brains, cognitive powers, intellectual powers, wit, ability, wisdom, Vernunft, Verstand, soul, spirit, ghost, inner man, heart, breast, bosom, penetralia mentis, divina particula aurae, heart's core, the Absolute, psyche, subliminal consciousness, supreme principle, brain, organ of thought, seat of thought, sensorium, sensory, head, headpiece, pate, noddle, noggin, skull, scull, pericranium, cerebrum, cranium, brainpan, sconce, upper story, central processing unit, CPU, arithmetic and logical unit, ALU, metaphysics, psychics, psychology, ideology, mental philosophy, moral philosophy, philosophy of the mind, pneumatology, phrenology, craniology, cranioscopy, ideality, idealism, transcendentalism, spiritualism, immateriality, universal concept, universal conception, metaphysician, psychologist, intellectual, mental, rational, subjective, metaphysical, nooscopic, spiritual, ghostly, psychical, psychological, cerebral, animastic, brainy, hyperphysical, superphysical, subconscious, subliminal, immaterial, endowed with reason, in petto, ens rationis, frons est animi janua, locos y ninos dicen la verdad, mens sola loco non exulat, my mind is my kingdom, stern men with empires in their brains, the mind, the music breathing from her face, thou living ray of intellectual Fire.

Imagination

N imagination, originality, invention, fancy, inspiration, verve, warm imagination, heated imagination, excited imagination, sanguine imagination, ardent imagination, fiery imagination, boiling imagination, wild imagination, bold imagination, daring imagination, playful imagination, lively imagination, fertile imagination, fancy, mind's eye, such stuff as dreams are made of, ideality, idealism, romanticism, utopianism, castle-building, dreaming, phrensy, frenzy, ecstasy, extasy, calenture, reverie, trance, day dream, golden dream, somnambulism, conception, Vorstellung, excogitation, a fine frenzy, cloudland, dreamland, flight of fancy, fumes of fancy, thick coming fancies, creation of the brain, coinage of the brain, imagery, conceit, maggot, figment, myth, dream, vision, shadow, chimera, phantasm, phantasy, fantasy, fancy, whim, whimsey, whimsy, vagary, rhapsody, romance, gest, geste, extravaganza, air drawn dagger, bugbear, nightmare, flying Dutchman, great sea serpent, man in the moon, castle in the air, pipe dream, pie-in-the-sky, chateau en Espagne, Utopia, Atlantis, happy valley, millennium, fairyland, land of Prester John, kindgom of Micomicon, work of fiction, Arabian nights, le pot au lait, dream of Alnashar, illusion, phantom, Fata Morgana, vapor, stretch of the imagination, mythogenesis, idealist, romanticist, visionary, mopus, romancer, dreamer, somnambulist, rhapsodist, castle-buildier, fanciful projector, imagined, ben trovato, air drawn, airbuilt, imagining, imaginative, original, inventive, creative, fertile, romantic, high flown, flighty, extravagant, fanatic, enthusiastic, unrealistic, Utopian, Quixotic, ideal, unreal, in the clouds, in nubibus, unsubsantial, illusory, fabulous, legendary, mythical, mythic, mythological, chimerical, imaginary, visionary, notional, fancy, fanciful, fantastic, fantastical, whimsical, fairy, fairy-like, gestic, a change came o'er the spirit of my dream, aegri somnia vana, dolphinum appingit sylvis in fluctibus aprum, fancy light from fancy caught, imagination rules the world, l'imagination gallope, le jugement ne va que le pas, musaeo contingens cuncta lepore, tous songes sont mensonges, Wahrheil und Dichtung, DIVISION II COMMUNICATION OF IDEAS.