idealism

Having high hopes or aims that may be difficult or impossible to achieve in real life.

• Her youthful idealism impressed us.
• Experience slowly replaced his idealism with practical thinking.
• Their plan reflects idealism but ignores the costs.

Similar words: optimism

Opposites: realism

Common phrases: youthful idealism, naive idealism, idealism and reality

The belief that ideas and moral values matter most in life.

• Her idealism puts fairness above profit.
• His idealism makes him value principles more than personal success.
• The movement’s idealism centers on justice and equal rights.

Opposites: materialism

Common phrases: moral idealism, political idealism, idealism and values

The philosophical view that we can know ideas or mental images directly, rather than things outside our minds.

• The lecture introduced philosophical idealism.
• Idealism raises questions about what we can know directly.
• She compared idealism with theories that give physical reality priority.

Opposites: realism

Common phrases: philosophical idealism, subjective idealism, theory of idealism