Pangloss

/ ˈpænɡlɒs /

noun

1. a person who views a situation with unwarranted optimism

Other Word Forms

• Panglossian adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Pangloss¹

C19: after Dr Pangloss , a character in Voltaire's Candide (1759)

Example Sentences

He ends up on a farm, done with the blind optimism of his mentor Pangloss.

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I don’t want to sound like the perpetually optimistic Dr. Pangloss.

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A few years later, he and Prince worked together on a revival of Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide,” for which he played the pedantic Dr. Pangloss.

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Pinker isn’t a Doctor Pangloss who thinks we live in the best of all possible worlds.

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From LaBonge, we were charmed by a boyish Pangloss who believed passionately that the City of the Angels was the best of all possible places.

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