as in romantic
having or marked by a tendency to be guided more by ideals than by reality
an idealist attempt to make a go of a mom-and-pop hardware store on Main Street
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in dreamer
one whose conduct is guided more by the image of perfection than by the real world
an idealist sees the best in everyone, regardless of how they behave
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of idealist
Zoe G Phillips, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2024
In each episode, Kaplan argues that although hubris, ambition, and hatred always lurk in the background, the knowledge of human imperfection and the limits of progress can liberate people to seek greater self-awareness and avoid idealist misadventures.
—Robert D. Kaplan, Foreign Affairs, 24 Oct. 2023
Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, 19 Jan. 2025
The First Lady remained a champion of Baroni’s approach, but most of the President’s Ivy League advisors deemed him a sentimental idealist with an exaggerated view of the people’s potential.
—Harry Boyte and Trygve Throntveit, TIME, 4 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for idealist
Adjective
The film’s first trailer released on Monday, featuring Adam Driver as an idealist architect up against Giancarlo Esposito as a pragmatist mayor.
—Zoe G Phillips, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2024
In each episode, Kaplan argues that although hubris, ambition, and hatred always lurk in the background, the knowledge of human imperfection and the limits of progress can liberate people to seek greater self-awareness and avoid idealist misadventures.
—Robert D. Kaplan, Foreign Affairs, 24 Oct. 2023
Noun
That would be ideal — and MLK was, if anything, an idealist, a dreamer.
—Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, 19 Jan. 2025
The First Lady remained a champion of Baroni’s approach, but most of the President’s Ivy League advisors deemed him a sentimental idealist with an exaggerated view of the people’s potential.
—Harry Boyte and Trygve Throntveit, TIME, 4 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for idealist
Recent Examples of Synonyms for idealist
Adjective
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There's something romantic about the sight of flowers languidly cascading over the sides of pots.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
4 Apr. 2025
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Sports events, issues with your kids and romantic matters also might surprise you.—
Georgia Nicols,
Denver Post,
4 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Baseball’s opening day is for the believers, the diehards and dreamers.—
Andrew Carter,
Chicago Tribune,
27 Mar. 2025
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Execution separates successful people from dreamers.—
Jodie Cook,
Forbes,
25 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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In a forsaken village, the economic opportunities presented by the arrival of wind farms trigger a tragic feud between embittered locals and a couple of idealistic French city-dwellers who have recently moved to the area.—
Bartolomeo Sala,
The Dial,
27 Mar. 2025
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However, finding a free market that fully embodies this idealistic form of capitalism is difficult.—
Gabrielle Boko,
Forbes,
11 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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In regions where extending traditional power lines is costly or impractical, solar microgrids offer a viable, scalable alternative.—
ILYA Likhov,
Forbes.com,
7 Apr. 2025
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These trees provide good wildlife value, so their removal may be both undesirable and impractical, especially since spores can travel on the wind for quite a distance.—
Miri Talabac,
Baltimore Sun,
27 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Moving Forward The evolution of AI image generation suggests neither utopian transformation nor existential threat, but rather a reconfiguration of visual communication.—
Gerui Wang,
Forbes.com,
31 Mar. 2025
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Olah, like many in the community who balance visions of utopian abundance and existential devastation, plants himself in the middle of this either-or proposition.—
Steven Levy,
Wired News,
28 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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The decline comes as Democrats’ ideological wings fight over the best tactics to counter Trump, which, combined with raw political ambition, makes the emerging Democratic 2028 field a wide-open electoral canvass.—
David Mark,
The Washington Examiner,
28 Mar. 2025
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The scene is straight out of a stratagem by Pier Paolo Pasolini (Bertolucci’s mentor), but Palud takes it literally without applying comparable ideological critique to the rest of her film.—
Armond White,
National Review,
28 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Our devastation of nature is so deep and vast that to reverse its effects, on any front, often entails efforts that are so painstaking and quixotic as to border on the ridiculous.—
Nick Paumgarten,
The New Yorker,
10 Feb. 2025
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Or the sudden, quixotic tariffs on Canada and Mexico.—
Tom Rogers,
Newsweek,
21 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Idealist.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/idealist. Accessed 13 Apr. 2025.
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