idealization
Americannoun
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the act or process of idealizing something.
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Psychoanalysis. a mental mechanism, operating consciously or unconsciously, in which one person overestimates an admired attribute of another.
noun
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the representation of something as ideal
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a conception of something that dwells on its advantages and ignores its deficiencies
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a general theoretical account of natural phenomena that ignores features that are difficult to accommodate within a theory
Etymology
Origin of idealization
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.
Clare, too, receives frequent rhapsodic praise, but even accounting for the narrator’s grief-induced idealization, their relationship strikes me as too perfect.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
This is a young man’s idealization of a dying old man glorifying his final breaths.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2023
Waldstreicher, who teaches at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, is known for deeply researched, tightly written studies, which aim to complicate any comforting idealization of the founding.
From New York Times ● Mar. 2, 2023
However, linguists often point out that the concept of a standard accent is better understood as an idealization rather than a reality.
From Salon ● Jan. 7, 2023
He was always doing things he felt disinclined to do, as a result of his constant work of idealization.
From Gargoyles by Ben Hecht
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
