ideal
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
ideal/ʌɪˈdiːəl/
▶adjective
- 1 most suitable; perfect.
- 2 desirable or perfect but existing only in the imagination: in an ideal world.
■ representing an abstract or hypothetical optimum.
■ a standard or principle to be aimed at.
– derivatives
ideally adverb.
ideally adverb.
– origin ME (as a term in Platonic philosophy, in the sense ‘existing as an archetype’): from late L. idealis, from L. idea (see idea).
'ideal' also found in these Oxford entries:
American
- Arcadian
- Arcady
- arcology
- ashrama
- beau idéal
- Boyle's law
- Charles's law
- cheesecake
- chivalry
- counsel
- disillusion
- dream
- dreamland
- enosis
- figura
- form
- gas equation
- Gibson girl
- God's gift
- golden mean
- ideal gas
- idealism
- ideality
- motto
- Mr Right
- never-never land
- object lesson
- paradise
- perfect gas
- picture-perfect
- theory
- Übermensch
- unideal
