beau ideal
noun
a conception of perfect beauty.
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beau ideal
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beau idéal
beau idéalnounperfect beauty or excellence
beau ideal
Americannoun
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beaus ideal,
plural
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beaux ideal,
plural
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beau ideals
plural
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a conception of perfect beauty.
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a model of excellence.
beau idéal
British
/ bo ideal /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
Philanthropic achievements made him the beau ideal for plutocrats as renaissance men.
From New York Times ● Jan. 7, 2022
His birthplace, Urbino, was also that of Raphael, the beau ideal to whom all painters aspired.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 16, 2013
His father was Archie’s beau ideal indeed of all that was worth being, or saying, or knowing, in this world; and Rupert’s as well.
From From Squire to Squatter A Tale of the Old Land and the New by Gordon Stables
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
The Duchesse was radiant in health and beauty, and the Duc looking, as he always does, more distingué, than any one else—the perfect beau idéal of a nobleman.
From The Idler in France by Marguerite, Countess of Blessington
We then went to see a spot that was the very beau idéal of an abode for people like ourselves, who were out in quest of the picturesque.
From A Residence in France With an Excursion Up the Rhine, and a Second Visit to Switzerland by James Fenimore Cooper
With his throat open, and his loose black handkerchief, he was the beau idéal of a handsome sailor.
From The Three Cutters by Frederick Marryat
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
