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• beau ideal
  beau ideal

  noun

  a conception of perfect beauty.
• beau idéal
  beau idéal

  noun

  perfect beauty or excellence

beau ideal

American  

noun

beaus ideal, plural beaux ideal, plural beau ideals plural

1. a conception of perfect beauty.

2. a model of excellence.

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beau idéal British  

/ bo ideal /

noun

1. perfect beauty or excellence

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• beau ideals
  plural
• beaus ideal
  plural
• beaux ideal
  plural

Etymology

Origin of beau ideal

First recorded in 1795–1805, beau ideal is from French beau idéal literally, “ideal beauty.” See beau, ideal

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

beau ideal beau idéal

It’s not surprising that Mr. Serrano found his way to Ms. Wilson, who, like Mr. Duncan, the author’s beau ideal of a player, “banks in beauty.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025

Their friendship was the beau ideal of warrior comrades.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 8, 2022

Lipsyte: One of the reasons that the older reporters were antagonistic to him, besides the fact that he wasn’t laconic like Joe Louis, their beau ideal, was the unorthodoxy of his style.

From Slate ● Jun. 4, 2016

Or so goes the famous line by Irving Howe, the beau ideal of the politically engaged writer and a founder of the left-wing intellectual magazine Dissent.

From New York Times ● Jul. 2, 2014

This beau ideal of a young Quakeress, her simple, modest, consistent apparel, which was chiefly drab, relieved by the use of dark olive colored material, enlisted everyone's attention.

From Revisiting the Earth by Hill, James Langdon

Will’s beau idéal, Ronald Reagan, used it frequently on the rubber-chicken-and-peas circuit.

From Salon ● Dec. 20, 2025

It dominated the public discussion, especially among young English economists in training, for whom the brilliant, dashing, socially connected Keynes was a beau idéal.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 18, 2017

After this beau idéal of a morning toilet comes the ante-prandial drill.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 45, July, 1861 by Various

I repeat: their beau idéal of life is to do nothing for six days in the week and to rest on the seventh.

From To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II A Personal Narrative by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir

He was the beau idéal of the soldier-monk, and the true embodiment of a spirit of chivalry which was fast passing away.

From The Story of Malta by Ballou, Maturin Murray