Search results
- DictionaryU·to·pi·an/yo͞oˈtōpēən/
adjective
- 1. modeled on or aiming for a state in which everything is perfect; idealistic: "a utopian ideology"
noun
- 1. an idealistic reformer: "he describes himself as an educational Utopian"
Learn the meaning of utopian as an adjective and a noun, with synonyms, examples, and history. Utopian means having or proposing ideal conditions of social organization, or believing in the perfectibility of human society.
- Overview
- More’s Utopia
- Speculative and practical utopias
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
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.
Utopia is an ideal commonwealth whose inhabitants exist under seemingly perfect conditions. Learn about the history and types of utopian literature, from More's Utopia to Wells's The Time Machine.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
t. e. A utopia ( / juːˈtoʊpiə / yoo-TOH-pee-ə) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. [1] It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, which describes a fictional island society in the New World .
Utopia is a noun that means a place of ideal perfection, an impractical scheme for social improvement, or an imaginary and indefinitely remote place. It comes from the name of an ideal country in a book by Sir Thomas More in 1516. See synonyms, examples, etymology, and related words.
Learn the meaning of utopian, an adjective that describes something related to or aiming for a perfect society. See how to use it in sentences and find translations in different languages.
Utopian means related to or resembling an idealized imaginary place or society, or involving impractical or unrealistic schemes of perfection. Learn more about the word's origin, usage, and related terms on Dictionary.com.
Utopia is a noun that means a perfect society in which people work well with each other and are happy. Learn how to use it in sentences, compare it with dystopia, and find out how to say it in different languages.
