Shangri-la
noun
an imaginary paradise on earth, especially a remote and exotic utopia.
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Shangri-la
American
[shang-gruh-lah, shang-gruh-lah]
/ ˈʃæŋ grəˌlɑ, ˌʃæŋ grəˈlɑ /
noun
-
an imaginary paradise on earth, especially a remote and exotic utopia.
-
a faraway haven or hideaway of idyllic beauty and tranquility.
Last summer we rented a cottage on a little lake—our perfect Shangri-la.
Shangri-la
British
/ ˌʃæŋɡrɪˈlɑː /
noun
Shangri-La
Cultural
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A “Shangri-La,” by extension, is an ideal refuge from the troubles of the world.
Etymology
Origin of Shangri-la
After the fictional Tibetan land of eternal youth in the novel The Lost Horizon (1933) by James Hilton
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:
This house is Harlan’s Shangri-la, a place where a man who made his own rules lived.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2024
"Ratched" was a bomb, but the psychiatric hospital where Sarah Paulson's wicked nurse worked was an interior designer's Shangri-la.
From Salon ● Oct. 8, 2023
Beijing has also refused requests from the U.S. for a face-to-face meeting between the defense chiefs of both countries during the June 2-4 Shangri-la Dialogue security forum in Singapore.
From Washington Times ● May 31, 2023
Austin pushed for improved communication between the rival forces when met Chinese Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe on the sidelines of Shangri-la Dialogue security meeting in Singapore in June.
From Reuters ● Aug. 6, 2022
The house was set on a half-acre landscaped like Shangri-la.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
The Camp David property - set deep in Catoctin Mountain Park in Frederick County, Maryland - was first taken over as a retreat by President Franklin Roosevelt, who nicknamed it "Shangri-La".
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Today, there are at least 300 costume photography studios in Shangri-La, a city of fewer than 200,000 people.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
The area around present-day Shangri-La began to grow rich as Drolma’s family and other ethnic Tibetans jumped into harvesting the mushrooms, which grow naturally on the oaks and pines of the Eastern Himalayas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
"Think about it. There is a country that has a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons and strategic bombers," Koizumi said at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
From Barron's ● May 31, 2026
Longtime visitors to the Khumbu are saddened by the boom in tourism and the change it has wrought on what early Western climbers regarded as an earthly paradise, a real-life Shangri-La.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
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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.
