Idea Meaning
/aɪ̯ˈdɪə̯/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAn abstract archetype of a given thing, compared to which real-life examples are seen as imperfect approximations; pure essence, as opposed to actual examples.
nounThe conception of someone or something as representing a perfect example; an ideal.
Sentence Examples
The last person I told my idea to thought I was nuts.
"What's going on in the cave? I'm curious." "I have no idea."
It would be a good idea to call before we leave.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She had a brilliant ____ for solving the math problem quickly in class.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She had a brilliant ____ for a new business that she believed would be very successful.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weyd-der. Ancient Greek ῐ̓δεῖν (ĭdeîn) Ancient Greek ῐ̓δέᾱ (ĭdéā)der. Latin ideabor. English idea Borrowed from Latin idea (“a (Platonic) idea; archetype”), from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “notion, pattern”), from εἴδω (eídō, “to see”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to know; see”). Cognate with French idée. Doublet of idée. Related to idol, idolum, and eidolon.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 2013 October 19, “Trouble at the lab”, in The Economist, volume 409, number 8858:
"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."
— 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 6, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
"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."
— 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter III, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
"Ideas won't go to jail."
— 1952, Alfred Whitney Griswold, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
"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."
— 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She had a brilliant ____ for solving the math problem quickly in class.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She had a brilliant ____ for a new business that she believed would be very successful.