Utopia Meaning
/juːˈtəʊ.pi.ə/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA world in which everything and everyone works in perfect harmony.
nounAlternative letter-case form of utopia.
Sentence Examples
Take my hand. The two of us are going to construct a utopia.
Finland is no utopia.
Take my hand. We'll build a utopia, you and me.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The author described a perfect society called ____ where everyone lived happily.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The novel describes a distant and perfect ____ where everyone lives in peace and harmony with each other today.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Ancient Greek οὐ (ou) Ancient Greek τόπος (tópos) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-íā Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā) New Latin Ūtopiader. English utopia From New Latin Ūtopia, the name of a fictional island possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system in the book Utopia (1516) by Sir Thomas More. Coined from Ancient Greek οὐ (ou, “not”) + τόπος (tópos, “place, region”) + -ία (-ía). Compare English topos and -ia.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Errors in time must be kept in mind when analyzing myths and utopiae. Utopiae are merely projections, on a less personal and wider scale, of Cinderella’s longing for a happy future."
— 1945, Chimera: A Literary Quarterly, page 22:
"« Some peoples of Central or South Africa have conceived downright utopiae which enable them to build up a reality more tolerable than that in which they have to live daily »."
— 1959, Civilisations, page 426:
"As everyone knows, almost all booked passenger and freight trains are diagrammed into rosters for engines and men, and in an operating Utopia everything would work out daily according to plan."
— 1962 August, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 131:
"Efficiency for the sake of efficiency, unchallenged authority conferred upon those who know well a few things and ignore everything else, disdain for the ordinary and humble elements that introduce happiness in our lives, worship of unattainable utopiae, are some of the features of the scheme which leads inevitably to the suppression of the eternal gifts bestowed by God upon every human person and to the frightful prospect of being ruled by what he vividly names “the Empire of the Insect.”"
— 1974, The Chesterton Review, page 262:
"Orwell had correctly seen that the achievement of Wells’s ideas would be far from the frivolity of “Utopiae full of nude women” and visions of “super garden cities.”"
— 1979, Ian Scott-Kilvert, editor, British Writers, →ISBN, page 242:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The author described a perfect society called ____ where everyone lived happily.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The novel describes a distant and perfect ____ where everyone lives in peace and harmony with each other today.