idea

From Latin idea (“a (Platonic) idea; archetype”), from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “notion, pattern”), from εἴδω (eídō, “I see”). Cognate with French idée.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /aɪˈdɪə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /aɪˈdi.ə/
• (General American, nonstandard) IPA^(key): /aɪˈdɪɹ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə, -iːə
• Hyphenation: i‧de‧a

idea (plural ideas or (rare) ideæ)

1. (philosophy) An abstract archetype of a given thing, compared to which real-life examples are seen as imperfect approximations; pure essence, as opposed to actual examples. [from 14th c.]
   • 2013 October 19, “Trouble at the lab”, in The Economist, volume 409, number 8858:

     The idea that the same experiments always get the same results, no matter who performs them, is one of the cornerstones of science’s claim to objective truth. If a systematic campaign of replication does not lead to the same results, then either the original research is flawed (as the replicators claim) or the replications are (as many of the original researchers on priming contend). Either way, something is awry.

2. (obsolete) The conception of someone or something as representing a perfect example; an ideal. [16th-19th c.]
3. (obsolete) The form or shape of something; a quintessential aspect or characteristic. [16th-18th c.]
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 6, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     The remembrance whereof (which yet I beare deepely imprinted in my minde) representing me her visage and Idea so lively and so naturally, doth in some sort reconcile me unto her.

4. An image of an object that is formed in the mind or recalled by the memory. [from 16th c.]

   The mere idea of you is enough to excite me.

5. More generally, any result of mental activity; a thought, a notion; a way of thinking. [from 17th c.]
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 3, in The Celebrity:

     Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.

   • 1952, Alfred Whitney Griswold

     Ideas won't go to jail.

6. A conception in the mind of something to be done; a plan for doing something, an intention. [from 17th c.]

   I have an idea of how we might escape.

7. A purposeful aim or goal; intent

   If you keep sweet-talking her like that, you're going to talk her right out of her pants.

   Yeah, that's the idea.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 3, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.

   • 2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71:

     Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.

8. A vague or fanciful notion; a feeling or hunch; an impression. [from 17th c.]

   He had the wild idea that if he leant forward a little, he might be able to touch the mountain-top.

9. (music) A musical theme or melodic subject. [from 18th c.]

• (mental transcript, image, or picture): image

• Japanese: アイディア (aidia)

• idea in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• idea in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• Adie, aide, daie

From Latin idea, from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “notion, pattern”), from εἴδω (eídō, “I see”).

idea f (plural idees)

1. idea

• ideal

From Latin idea, from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “notion, pattern”), from εἴδω (eídō, “I see”).

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /iˈdɛ.ə/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /iˈdɛ.a/

idea f (plural idees)

1. idea (clarification of this definition is needed)

• ideal
• idear

• “idea” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “idea” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “idea” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “idea” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From Latin idea, from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa), from εἴδω (eídō).

• IPA^(key): /ɪdɛa/

• Audio

  (file)

idea f

1. idea (that which exists in the mind as the result of mental activity)

• ideace
• idealizace
• idealizovaný
• idealizovat
• ideolog
• ideologický
• ideologie
• ideový
• ideál
• idealista
• idealismus
• ideozločin

• idea in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• idea in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

From Latin idea, from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “notion, pattern”).

idea

1. idea

• ajatus

From Latin idea, from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “notion, pattern”), from εἴδω (eídō, “I see”).

idea f (plural ideas)

1. idea

• ideal

From Latin idea, from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “notion, pattern”). [1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈidɛɒ]
• Hyphenation: idea

idea (plural ideák)

1. idea

idea (plural ideas)

1. idea

From Latin idea, from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “notion, pattern”), from εἴδω (eídō, “I see”).

idea f (plural idee)

1. idea

   buon'idea ― good idea

idea

1. third-person singular present tense of ideare
2. second-person singular imperative of ideare

• ideale
• ideare
• ideazione
• ideo-

• aedi

From Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “notion, pattern”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈi.de.a/, [ˈɪ.de.a]

idea f (genitive ideae); first declension

1. idea
   • 1719, Johann Jakob Brucker:

     Tentamen Introductionis in Historiam Doctrinae Logicae de Ideis

     An Essay Introducing the History of the Logical Doctrine of Ideas

2. prototype (Platonic)

First declension.

• idea in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• idea in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)

idea

1. idea

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• Álgu database

From Latin idea (“a (Platonic) idea; archetype”), from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “notion, pattern”), from εἴδω (eídō, “I see”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈidɛa/

idea f (genitive singular idey, nominative plural idey, genitive plural ideí, declension pattern of idea)

1. idea (that which exists in the mind as the result of mental activity)

• ideológ m
• ideologický m
• ideológia f
• ideový m
• ideál m
• idealista m
• idealistický m
• idealizácia f
• idealizmus m

• idea in Slovak dictionaries at korpus.sk

• IPA^(key): /iˈdea/, [iˈðea]

From Latin idea, from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “notion, pattern”), from εἴδω (eídō, “I see”). Compare Portuguese ideia.

idea f (plural ideas)

1. idea

• ideal
• idear

See the etymology of the main entry.

idea

1. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of idear.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of idear.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present indicative form of idear.

• “idea” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.