ideal

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   The best possible; perfect for a particular purpose.

   This quiet house is an ideal place to study.

2. 2
   noun

   A standard of perfection or a principle worth aiming for.

   Freedom and justice are ideals worth fighting for.

3. 3
   adj

   Existing only as an idea, not in reality.

   In an ideal world, no one would ever go hungry.

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.

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