idealism

First attested 1796, from ideal +‎ -ism.

• IPA^(key): /ʌɪˈdɪəlɪz(ə)m/, /ʌɪˈdiːəlɪz(ə)m/

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idealism (countable and uncountable, plural idealisms)

1. The property of a person of having high ideals that are usually unrealizable or at odds with practical life.
2. 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.^[1]
3. (philosophy) An approach to philosophical enquiry, which asserts that direct and immediate knowledge can only be had of ideas or mental pictures.

   Synonym: philosophical idealism

   Antonym: materialism

• idealist
• idealistic
• idealistically
• perfectionism

• realism
• pragmatism
• materialism
• physicalism

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “idealism”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “idealism”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Raymond Williams (1983), “Idealism”, in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, revised American edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1985, →ISBN, page 152

• email IDs, miladies

Borrowed from French idéalisme. Equivalent to ideal +‎ -ism.

idealism n (uncountable)

1. idealism

• idealist

idealism c

1. idealism (holding or striving towards ideals, sometimes unrealistic)
   • 1894, Gustaf Fröding, “Idealism och realism [Idealism and Realism]”, in Nya dikter [New Poems]:

     Nu är jag led vid tidens schism
     emellan jord och stjärnor.
     Vår idealism och realism
     de klyva [old present tense plural, usually klyver] våra hjärnor.
     
     Det ljugs, när porträtterat grus
     får namn av konst och fägring.
     En syn, som svävar skön och ljus
     i skyn, är sann som hägring.
     
     Men strunt är strunt och snus är snus,
     om ock i gyllne [gyllene] dosor,
     och rosor i ett sprucket krus
     är ändå alltid rosor.

     Now I am weary of the current [the time's] schism
     between earth and stars.
     Our idealism and realism
     they split our brains.
     
     People lie [it is lied], when portrayed dust [gravel, sometimes used figuratively like dust, especially in the past]
     gets called art and beauty ["gets name of" – archaic].
     A sight, that floats fair and bright
     in the sky, is true as a mirage.
     
     But nonsense is nonsense and snuff is snuff [fairly well-known line],
     if also in golden boxes [small boxes with a lid].
     And roses in a cracked jug
     are still always roses.
     

2. (philosophy) idealism

• idealism in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• idealism in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• idealism in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)