IDEAL • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Ideal

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/aɪdˈil/ Listen

adjective

Ideal adj.

Existing in idea or thought; conceptional; intellectual; mental; as, ideal knowledge.

Reaching an imaginary standard of excellence; fit for a model; faultless; as, ideal beauty. "There will always be a wide interval between practical and ideal excellence."

Existing in fancy or imagination only; visionary; unreal. "Planning ideal common wealth."

Teaching the doctrine of idealism; as, the ideal theory or philosophy.

(Math.) Imaginary.

Synonyms: Intellectual; mental; visionary; fanciful; imaginary; unreal; impracticable; utopian.

noun

Ideal n. A mental conception regarded as a standard of perfection; a model of excellence, beauty, etc. "The ideal is to be attained by selecting and assembling in one whole the beauties and perfections which are usually seen in different individuals, excluding everything defective or unseemly, so as to form a type or model of the species. Thus, the Apollo Belvedere is the ideal of the beauty and proportion of the human frame."

Beau ideal. See Beau ideal.

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Etymology of 'Ideal'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ideal" Quotes from Famous Books

... Sabians and Chaldeans of the present day don't dislocate society; they only alter the incidence of existing dislocation; and all this works steadily towards a restoration—if not of some old Saturnian or Jahvistic Paradise-idyll, at least of a Divine intention and human ideal. Vicissitude of fortune is the very hand of "the Eternal, not ourselves, that maketh for righteousness," the manifestation of the Power behind moral evolution; and we may safely trust the harmony of Universal legislation for this antidote to a grievous disease; we may rest confident ...

— Such is Life • Joseph Furphy

... was the kindest. Tecaughretanego was wise and good. He had a thoughtful mind and a serene spirit; he could be just and loving to the white man whom he had taken for his brother, but he had not so noble an ideal of conduct as Logan. This chief grasped the notion of friendship with all the whites; he was more than a tribesman; he imagined what it was to be a citizen. Among the Ohio men of the past there is no nature more ...

— Stories Of Ohio - 1897 • William Dean Howells

... organization, with a teacher for each class. From the Calvinists they obtained the idea of the careful supervision of instruction, which was worked out in the Prefect of Studies for their colleges. In their course of study they incorporated the Ciceronian ideal of the humanistic learning, and as careful religious instruction as was provided by any of the reformers. From the Italian court schools they took the idea of physical training. The method of instruction and classroom management which they worked out was detailed, practical, and ...

— THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION • ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY

... very correct that he wore his dress suit to business. So anxious are they to be thought civilized. There is nothing that hurts a gentleman's feelings in Japan more than to hear one say, "They have such a beautiful country and when they are converted from heathenism it will be ideal." There is a strong Episcopal church and college ...

— An Ohio Woman in the Philippines • Emily Bronson Conger

... that it is inspired by the ideal "to each according to his need," and that it resolves accordingly that the commodities which people require for a decent standard of life shall be supplied to them as a matter of course? How, then, would it proceed? It might estimate ...

— Supply and Demand • Hubert D. Henderson

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