ideal
n. countablen. a perfect idea or standard that you try to achieve. It is often a principle or belief that guides how you behave.
n. a principle, value, or standard of perfection that serves as a model to be imitated. Often used in the plural to describe a person's core belief system.
The company works hard to live up to its environmental ideals.
The young lawyer entered the profession with high ideals about justice and equality for every citizen.
While the political party was founded on the ideals of shared prosperity, the practical realities of governing forced them to make several difficult compromises.
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.
Frequently used in the plural ('ideals') when referring to a set of moral or political beliefs.
He is my idealHe is my idolLearners confuse 'ideal' (a perfect standard or principle) with 'idol' (a person who is greatly admired).