- 1the belief that a perfect life, situation, etc. can be achieved, even when this is not very likely He was full of youthful idealism. Idealism has no place in modern politics.
Definitions on the go
Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.
- 2(philosophy) the belief that our ideas are the only things that are real and that we can know about compare materialism, realism
NAmE//aɪˈdiəlɪst//
noun He's too much of an idealist for this government.See idealism in the Oxford Advanced Learner's DictionaryCheck pronunciation: idealism