ideal
/aɪˈdi(ə)l/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.44 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Pertaining to ideas, or to a given idea.
adj
Existing only in the mind; conceptual, imaginary.
adj
Optimal; being the best possibility.
adj
Not actually present, but considered as present when limits at infinity are included.
noun
A two-sided ideal; a subset of a ring which is closed under both left and right multiplication by elements of the ring.
Example Sentences
- "The idea of ghosts is ridiculous in the extreme; and if you continue to be swayed by ideal terrors —"
- "Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world."
- "At first, he began to doubt the reality of his adventures, but the acute pain in his shoulders when he attempted to rise, assured him that the kicking of the goblins was certainly not ideal."
- "1751 April 13, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, Number 112, reprinted in 1825, The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., Volume 1, Jones & Company, page 194, There will always be a wide interval between practical and ideal excellence; […] ."
- "the ideal theory or philosophy"
- "ideal point"
Etymology
From French idéal, from Late Latin ideālis (“existing in idea”), by surface analysis, idea + -al, from Latin idea (“idea”); see idea. In mathematics, the noun ring theory sense was first introduced by German mathematician Richard Dedekind in his 1871 edition of a text on number theory. The concept was quickly expanded to ring theory and later generalised to order theory. The set theory and Lie theory senses can be regarded as applications of the order theory sense.
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /aɪˈdi(ə)l/
- British English: /aɪˈdɪəl/