ideal

ideal
    adj 1: conforming to an ultimate standard of perfection or
           excellence; embodying an ideal
    2: constituting or existing only in the form of an idea or
       mental image or conception; "a poem or essay may be typical
       of its period in idea or ideal content"
    3: of or relating to the philosophical doctrine of the reality
       of ideas [syn: {ideal}, {idealistic}]
    n 1: the idea of something that is perfect; something that one
         hopes to attain
    2: model of excellence or perfection of a kind; one having no
       equal [syn: {ideal}, {paragon}, {nonpareil}, {saint},
       {apotheosis}, {nonesuch}, {nonsuch}]
    

Ideal \I*de"al\, n.
   A mental conception regarded as a standard of perfection; a
   model of excellence, beauty, etc.
   [1913 Webster]

         The ideal is to be attained by selecting and assembling
         in one whole the beauties and perfections which are
         usually seen in different individuals, excluding
         everything defective or unseemly, so as to form a type
         or model of the species. Thus, the Apollo Belvedere is
         the ideal of the beauty and proportion of the human
         frame.                                   --Fleming.
   [1913 Webster]

   {Beau ideal}. See {Beau ideal}.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Ideal \I*de"al\, a. [L. idealis: cf. F. id['e]al.]
   1. Existing in idea or thought; conceptional; intellectual;
      mental; as, ideal knowledge.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Reaching an imaginary standard of excellence; fit for a
      model; faultless; as, ideal beauty. --Byron.
      [1913 Webster]

            There will always be a wide interval between
            practical and ideal excellence.       --Rambler.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Existing in fancy or imagination only; visionary; unreal.
      "Planning ideal common wealth." --Southey.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. Teaching the doctrine of idealism; as, the ideal theory or
      philosophy.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. (Math.) Imaginary.

   Syn: Intellectual; mental; visionary; fanciful; imaginary;
        unreal; impracticable; utopian.
        [1913 Webster]
    

ideal

   <theory> In {domain theory}, a non-empty, {downward closed}
   subset which is also closed under binary {least upper bounds}.
   I.e. anything less than an element is also an element and the
   least upper bound of any two elements is also an element.

   (1997-09-26)
    

IDEAL

   1. Ideal DEductive Applicative Language.  A language by Pier
   Bosco and Elio Giovannetti combining {Miranda} and {Prolog}.
   Function definitions can have a {guard} condition (introduced
   by ":-") which is a conjunction of equalities between
   arbitrary terms, including functions.  These guards are solved
   by normal {Prolog} {resolution} and {unification}.  It was
   originally compiled into {C-Prolog} but was eventually to be
   compiled to {K-leaf}.

   2. A numerical {constraint} language written by Van Wyk of
   {Stanford} in 1980 for {typesetting} graphics in documents.
   It was inspired partly by {Metafont} and is distributed as
   part of {Troff}.

   ["A High-Level Language for Specifying Pictures", C.J. Van
   Wyk, ACM Trans Graphics 1(2):163-182 (Apr 1982)].

   (1994-12-15)
    

Ideal, GA (city, FIPS 40812)
  Location: 32.37277 N, 84.18891 W
  Population (1990): 554 (176 housing units)
  Area: 3.0 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
  Zip code(s): 31041
Ideal, SD
  Zip code(s): 57541
    

Ideal, GA -- U.S. city in Georgia
   Population (2000):    518
   Housing Units (2000): 217
   Land area (2000):     1.165520 sq. miles (3.018682 sq. km)
   Water area (2000):    0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
   Total area (2000):    1.165520 sq. miles (3.018682 sq. km)
   FIPS code:            40812
   Located within:       Georgia (GA), FIPS 13
   Location:             32.372918 N, 84.188822 W
   ZIP Codes (1990):     31041
   Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
   Headwords:
    Ideal, GA
    Ideal
    

241 Moby Thesaurus words for "ideal":
      Arcadian, Edenic, Geistesgeschichte, Hegelian idea, Kantian idea,
      Platonic form, Platonic idea, Utopian, absolute, abstract,
      academic, acme, ambition, apotheosis, apprehension, archetypal,
      archetype, archetypical, armchair, aspiration, assumption, autism,
      autistic thinking, basis, beau ideal, belief, best type,
      beyond all praise, brainstorm, calling, caprice, cause, celestial,
      chaste, chimerical, classic, classical, complete, complex idea,
      conceit, concept, conception, conceptual, conclusion, conjectural,
      conjecture, consideration, consummate, conviction, criterion,
      cynosure, defectless, dereism, dereistic thinking, dream, dreamery,
      ego ideal, epitome, estimation, eternal object, eternal universal,
      example, excellent, exemplar, exemplary, fancied, fanciful, fancy,
      fantasy, faultless, feeling, fictitious, flawless, flight of fancy,
      formal cause, goal, good example, ground, guess, guiding light,
      guiding star, heavenly, hero, high goal, highest category,
      history of ideas, hypothesis, hypothetic, hypothetical, idealism,
      idealistic, ideality, idealization, idealized, ideals, ideate,
      ideational, ideatum, idee-force, ideological, idyllic, illusory,
      image, imaginary, imaginative exercise, imagined, immaculate,
      impeccable, impractical, impracticality, impression, inclination,
      indefectible, indefective, infallible, innate idea, inspiration,
      intellection, intention, irreproachable, jewel, judgment,
      just right, lodestar, mainspring, man of men, masterpiece,
      masterwork, matter, millennial, mirror, model, moot, morals,
      motive, mythic, mythical, nonesuch, nonpareil, noosphere, notion,
      notional, noumenon, opinion, paradigm, paradigmatic, paradisal,
      paragon, pattern, pattern of perfection, peerless, percept,
      perception, perfect, persuasion, phoenix, play of fancy,
      postulatory, precedential, presumption, principle, principles,
      prototypal, prototype, pure, quintessence, quintessential,
      quixotism, quixotry, reaching high, reaction, reason, reflection,
      regulative first principle, representative, romance, romantic,
      romanticism, sake, score, sentiment, shining example, simple idea,
      sinless, source, speculation, speculative, spotless, spring,
      stainless, standard, standards, subsistent form, supposition,
      supreme, surmise, suspicion, taintless, the Absolute,
      the Absolute Idea, the Self-determined, the realized ideal,
      theoretical, theory, thought, transcendent, transcendent idea,
      transcendent nonempirical concept, transcendent universal,
      transcendental, typical, ulterior motive, unadulterated,
      unblemished, uncontaminated, unfaultable, universal,
      universal concept, universal essence, unmixed, unpracticalness,
      unreal, unrealism, unreality, unspotted, untainted, upward looking,
      utopian, utopianism, vagary, very, very model, view, visionariness,
      visionary, vocation, whim, whimsy, wish fulfillment,
      wish-fulfillment fantasy, wishful thinking