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- Synonyms of utopia 1 often capitalized : a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions 2 : an impractical scheme for social improvement 3 : an imaginary and indefinitely remote place
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Synonyms for UTOPIA: paradise, heaven, nirvana, Eden, wonderland, fantasyland, Garden of Eden, Zion; Antonyms of UTOPIA: dystopia, hell, anti-utopia, fool's paradise.
Find 30 different ways to say UTOPIA, along with antonyms, related words, and example sentences at Thesaurus.com.
- Overview
- More’s Utopia
- Speculative and practical utopias
utopia, an ideal commonwealth whose inhabitants exist under seemingly perfect conditions. Hence utopian and utopianism are words used to denote visionary reform that tends to be impossibly idealistic.
The word first occurred in Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, published in Latin as Libellus…de optimo reipublicae statu, deque nova insula Utopia (1516; “Concerning the highest state of the republic and the new island Utopia”); it was compounded by More from the Greek words for “not” (ou) and “place” (topos) and thus meant “nowhere.” During his embassy to ...
Written utopias may be speculative, practical, or satirical. Utopias are far older than their name. Plato’s Republic was the model of many, from More to H.G. Wells. A utopian island occurs in the Hiera anagraphe (“Sacred Inscription”) of Euhemerus (flourished c. 300 bce), and Plutarch (46–after 119 ce), in his life of Lycurgus, describes a utopian Sparta. The legend of Atlantis inspired many utopian myths, but explorations in the 15th century permitted more realistic settings, and More himself associated Utopia with Amerigo Vespucci. Other utopias that were similar to More’s in humanist themes were the I mondi (1552) of Antonio Francesco Doni and La città felice (1553) of Francesco Patrizi. An early practical utopia was the comprehensive La città del sole (c. 1602; “The City of the Sun”) of Tommaso Campanella. Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis (1627) was practical in its scientific program but speculative concerning philosophy and religion. Christian utopian commonwealths were described in Antangil (1616) by “I.D.M.,” Christianopolis (1619) by Johann Valentin Andreae, and Novae Solymae libri sex (1648) by Samuel Gott. Puritanism produced many literary utopias, both religious and secular, notably The Law of Freedom… (1652), in which Gerrard Winstanley advocated the principles of the Diggers. The Common-Wealth of Oceana (1656) by James Harrington argued for the distribution of land as the condition of popular independence.
In France such works as Gabriel de Foigny’s Terre australe connue (1676) preached liberty. François Fénelon’s Télémaque (1699) contained utopian episodes extolling the simple life. L’An 2440 by Louis-Sébastien Mercier (1770; Eng. trans., 1772) anticipated Revolutionary doctrines. G.A. Ellis’s New Britain (1820) and Étienne Cabet’s Voyage en Icarie (1840) were related to experimental communities in the United States that revealed the limitations of purely economic planning. Consequently, Bulwer-Lytton, in The Coming Race (1871), invented an essence that eliminated economics altogether, and William Morris demonstrated his contempt for economics in News from Nowhere (1890). Two influential utopias, however, had an economic basis: Looking Backward, 2000–1887 (1888) by Edward Bellamy and Freiland (1890; A Visit to Freeland…) by Theodor Herzka. H.G. Wells, in A Modern Utopia (1905), returned to speculation.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Other forms: utopias. Utopia is a perfect paradise that doesn’t exist, but which we all dream of anyway. In the dead of winter, we might imagine a utopia full of palm trees, warm breezes, and sun-soaked beaches. Utopia didn't evolve from Latin or another old foreign language.
noun. These are words and phrases related to utopia. Click on any word or phrase to go to its thesaurus page. Or, go to the definition of utopia. Retiring to Hawaii is my idea of utopia. Synonyms. ideal life. perfect bliss. supreme happiness. perfect place. heaven. seventh heaven. Erewhon. paradise. Eden. Shangri-la. Antonyms. hell on earth.
a perfect society in which people work well with each other and are happy: Try and imagine a perfect society, a utopia, in which the government really got everything right. Humans, in the developed world at least, are as close to utopia as they are ever likely to be, argues the professor. Compare. Fewer examples.
