idealism.

1. A commitment to elevated principles or aspirations, sometimes at the expense of practicality.

2. A philosophical view that gives mind, ideas, or experience a fundamental role in reality.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• youthful idealism
• political idealism

On the page

Her idealism survived the disappointing first year in office.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: analysis, explanation. Commonness: moderately common.