as in romantic
having or marked by a tendency to be guided more by ideals than by reality
an idealist attempt to make a go of a mom-and-pop hardware store on Main Street
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in dreamer
one whose conduct is guided more by the image of perfection than by the real world
an idealist sees the best in everyone, regardless of how they behave
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of idealist
Marco Della Cava, USA TODAY, 8 Sep. 2024
The film’s first trailer released on Monday, featuring Adam Driver as an idealist architect up against Giancarlo Esposito as a pragmatist mayor.
—Zoe G Phillips, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2024
Richard Stengel, Time, 16 Aug. 2025
But Loktev is quick to correct anyone who perceives My Undesirable Friends as a snapshot of idealists under duress.
—Tim Grierson, Rolling Stone, 13 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for idealist
Adjective
The movie stars Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina, an idealist architect with the power to control time, who is determined to rebuild a city that seems like New York after an accident plunges it into ruins.
—Marco Della Cava, USA TODAY, 8 Sep. 2024
The film’s first trailer released on Monday, featuring Adam Driver as an idealist architect up against Giancarlo Esposito as a pragmatist mayor.
—Zoe G Phillips, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2024
Noun
This is the classic foreign policy term, in contrast to a foreign policy idealist, whose legacy comes from Woodrow Wilson and his quest for a League of Nations.
—Richard Stengel, Time, 16 Aug. 2025
But Loktev is quick to correct anyone who perceives My Undesirable Friends as a snapshot of idealists under duress.
—Tim Grierson, Rolling Stone, 13 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for idealist
Recent Examples of Synonyms for idealist
Adjective
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During the podcast, Paris revealed that the pair's relationship began to break down six months before their eventual split amid fan speculation about a romantic relationship between Powell and Sweeney.—
Tabitha Parent,
PEOPLE,
28 Oct. 2025
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The season concludes on a romantic and hopeful note for Noah and Joanne.—
Allison DeGrushe,
Entertainment Weekly,
28 Oct. 2025
Noun
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In January, Zapata will open a flight center near Las Vegas, where dreamers can fly on a geofenced track that winds around the roughly 50-acre property.—
J. George Gorant,
Robb Report,
24 Oct. 2025
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Throughout the 1970s, as much as Nicholson’s rebels or Beatty’s hopeless romantics, Keaton’s optimistic dreamers repeatedly collided with the realities of the times, measuring the distance between what the counterculture thought was possible and what the world would actually allow.—
Tim Grierson,
Rolling Stone,
11 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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In a similar vein, pardon the pun, comes this Frank Wildhorn gothic musical about a Victorian-era doctor with two personalities, one an idealistic doctor, the other an evil murderer.—
Abby Hamblin,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
23 Oct. 2025
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Set in the Deep South, the film follows Coach Walt McFadden, played by Michael Mosley (Ozark), a talented but idealistic assistant coach at Louisiana University who’s out of second chances.—
Andreas Wiseman,
Deadline,
23 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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If there’s a force majeure clause in the new rights contracts that allows the NBA’s media partners to temporarily halt running sportsbook ads when an unforeseeable event makes such airings impractical, it’s hidden under a tide of black ink.—
Anthony Crupi,
Sportico.com,
24 Oct. 2025
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Robots have become indispensable in environments where high radiation or structural complexity makes human intervention dangerous or impractical.—
Kaif Shaikh,
Interesting Engineering,
24 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Necessary for doctrinal shifts—but needs to be grounded to avoid utopian overreach.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
27 Oct. 2025
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In times of uncertainty, particularly under the growing threat of totalitarianism, utopian fantasies provide a way to reflect on the situation and, potentially, outline a path toward a positive outcome.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
16 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Most Tanzanians, nearly 60 percent, are under 26, and their priorities are economic rather than ideological.—
Danish Manzoor Bhat,
MSNBC Newsweek,
26 Oct. 2025
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Other activists operate on ideological grounds.—
Jason Ma,
Fortune,
26 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Broadly fighting wind power statewide with a 12-mile-wide brush may be, in this mindset, the definition of quixotic.—
Joan Meiners,
AZCentral.com,
27 Oct. 2025
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That a war was on, or latent, or menacing during the whole shooting period set the quixotic mood in which most of the obstacles were confronted.—
Susan Sontag,
Vogue,
26 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Idealist.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/idealist. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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