idealization

American  

[ahy-dee-uh-luh-zey-shuhn] / aɪˌdi ə ləˈzeɪ ʃən /

noun

1. the act or process of idealizing something.

2. Psychoanalysis. a mental mechanism, operating consciously or unconsciously, in which one person overestimates an admired attribute of another.

---

idealization British  

/ aɪˌdɪəlaɪˈzeɪʃən /

noun

1. the representation of something as ideal

2. a conception of something that dwells on its advantages and ignores its deficiencies

3. a general theoretical account of natural phenomena that ignores features that are difficult to accommodate within a theory

---

Etymology

Origin of idealization

First recorded in 1790–1800; idealize + -ation

Example Sentences

“Obsession” has ideas about our age of instant gratification and parasocial idealization fueled by social media that the film never manages to do anything more than wag a finger at.

From Salon • Jun. 4, 2026

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

“There was an idealization and simplification of the problem that started in the economics literature,” said Robert Kopp, a climate scientist at Rutgers University.

From New York Times • Aug. 25, 2022

This vague idealization of Democracy was stimulated by the rare letters from his sister Martha in New York.

From Comrade Yetta by Edwards, Albert