ideal

Meaning

Adj

1. Pertaining to ideas, or to a given idea.
2. Existing only in the mind; conceptual, imaginary.
3. Optimal; being the best possibility.
4. Perfect, flawless, having no defects.
5. Teaching or relating to the doctrine of idealism.
6. Not actually present, but considered as present when limits at infinity are included.

Noun

1. A perfect standard of beauty, intellect etc., or a standard of excellence to aim at.
2. A two-sided ideal; a subset of a ring which is closed under both left and right multiplication by elements of the ring.
3. A non-empty lower set (of a partially ordered set) which is closed under binary suprema (a.k.a. joins).
4. A collection of sets, considered small or negligible, such that every subset of each member and the union of any two members are also members of the collection.
5. A Lie subalgebra (subspace that is closed under the Lie bracket) 𝖍 of a given Lie algebra 𝖌 such that the Lie bracket [𝖌,𝖍] is a subset of 𝖍.
6. A subsemigroup with the property that if any semigroup element outside of it is added to any one of its members, the result must lie outside of it.

Synonyms

model

paragon

example

prototype

perfect

aspiration

pattern

best

archetype

standard

imaginary

will

paradigm

abstract

prototypical

desirable

saint

dream

😴💭

apotheosis

perfection

exemplary

idealistic

nonesuch

nonpareil

nonsuch

ideological

idol

intention

jimdandy

leader

mold

most

most suitable

normative

purpose

real

representative

role model

standard bearer

stereotypical

suitable

superb

supreme

theoretical

thing

true

typical

unreal

visionary

just right

Translations

idéal

ideal

ideale

ideaal

ideal

ideal

Ideal

ideal

ιδανικός

vorbildlich

ιδεώδης

ιδανικό

مثالي

Pronounced as (IPA)

/aɪˈdiːl/

Etymology

From French idéal, from Late Latin ideālis (“existing in idea”), by surface analysis, idea + -al, from Latin idea (“idea”); see idea.
In mathematics, the noun ring theory sense was first introduced by German mathematician Richard Dedekind in his 1871 edition of a text on number theory. The concept was quickly expanded to ring theory and later generalised to order theory. The set theory and Lie theory senses can be regarded as applications of the order theory sense.

Sentences

Gabriel believed Weller's intense guitar style was ideal for the track .

Variety called Andree Lafayette " the ideal Trilby in face and figure ".