utopia
noun
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There’s quite literally no place like utopia. In 1516, English humanist Sir Thomas More published a book titled Utopia, which compared social and economic conditions in Europe with those of an ideal society on an imaginary island located off the coast of the Americas. More wanted to imply that the perfect conditions on his fictional island could never really exist, so he called it “Utopia,” a name he created by combining the Greek words ou (“not, no”) and topos (“place”). The earliest generic use of utopia was for an imaginary and indefinitely remote place. The current use of utopia, referring to an ideal place or society, was inspired by More’s description of Utopia’s perfection.
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Examples of utopia in a Sentence
Shayla Love, The Atlantic, 1 Nov. 2024
The town was an intentional community or planned utopia incorporated by Spiritualists in Western New York in 1879.
—Marissa C. Rhodes / Made By History, TIME, 8 Oct. 2024
Their founding leader, an Englishwoman named Ann Lee, preached Quaker ideals, like pacifism and gender equality, but added collective ownership, a work ethic to embarrass Balzac, and, trickiest of all for a utopia trying to grow, celibacy.
—Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2024
But for now, that prospect belongs in the realm of science fiction, and even there, dystopia is far more likely than anything verging on utopia.
—Nicholas Eberstadt, Foreign Affairs, 10 Oct. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Utopia.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/utopia. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
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utopia
noun
from Utopia, name of an imaginary ideal country in a book Utopia written by Sir Thomas More 1478–1535 English statesman and author; from Greek ou "not, no" and Greek topos "place"
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