idealist
Americannoun
-
a person who cherishes or pursues high or noble principles, purposes, goals, etc.
- Synonyms:
- utopianist, visionary, reformer, perfectionist, optimist
- Antonyms:
- cynic, skeptic, pragmatist
-
a visionary or impractical person.
- Synonyms:
- stargazer, dreamer, romanticist, romantic
- Antonyms:
- materialist, realist
-
a person who represents things as they might or should be rather than as they are.
My friend is an idealist, who somehow thinks that we always agree.
-
a writer or artist who treats subjects imaginatively.
-
a person who accepts the doctrines of philosophical idealism, as by representing things in an ideal form, or as they might or should be rather than as they are.
adjective
Pop Culture
—Idealist.org: a job-search website that connects people who want to work or volunteer their services with not-for-profit organizations.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of idealist
Explanation
An idealist is someone who envisions an ideal world rather than the real one. Some people consider idealists to be naive, impractical, and out of touch with reality. Idealists think that striving for perfection makes the world a better place. The main root of idealist is "ideal," which comes from the Latin word idea. As an idealist, you think everyone should act in the best interest of the group. Ideally, everyone would agree with you, but the unfortunate reality is that lots of people act solely in their own self-interest. Words that are related to idealist include "idealize," "idealism," and "ideally."
Vocabulary lists containing idealist
A Raisin in the Sun
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"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 20–25
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The Perks of Being a Wallflower
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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.
Amodei is an idealist who represents the historically liberal wing of Silicon Valley, concerned about unleashing AI without proper guardrails.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 21, 2025
On the other, "she had the restlessness of an idealist with a certain anger at the world as it was", Eve, now 67, told the BBC.
From BBC • Jan. 6, 2025
I was always very much an idealist and was like, "Let's just try."
From Salon • Dec. 25, 2024
Call me an idealist, but I also don’t think all of these voters are simply engaged in progressive virtue signaling.
From Slate • Oct. 19, 2024
Years of nongrowing, from being a seventeen-year-old, smooth-faced idealist hunched over a book in his Harlem apartment, to becoming a smooth-faced veteran of twenty hunched over a beer in a post exchange.
From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers
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.
