ideal

As good or suitable as you could want.

• This is an ideal place for a picnic.
• The weather was ideal for walking.
• What would your ideal job be?

How to use it: ideal for someone/something (This quiet room is ideal for studying.)

Similar words: perfect, optimal

Common phrases: ideal for someone, ideal place, ideal solution, ideal world

Connected with the belief that reality depends on the mind or ideas.

• The course examines ideal philosophy.
• Her essay contrasts ideal and materialist theories.
• He defended an ideal view of reality.

Similar words: idealist, idealistic

Opposites: materialist

Common phrases: ideal philosophy, ideal theory

Treated as existing infinitely far away in certain kinds of mathematics.

• Parallel lines meet at an ideal point.
• The diagram includes an ideal line.
• These ideal points lie outside the ordinary plane.

Common phrases: ideal point, ideal boundary, ideal line

A perfect example of a quality or type that people admire or aim for.

• She was his ideal of kindness.
• The design comes close to our ideal.
• Different cultures have different ideals of beauty.

How to use it: ideal of something (The statue represents an ideal of beauty.)

Similar words: model, perfect example, paragon

Common phrases: ideal of beauty, represent an ideal, achieve an ideal