(u TOPE i a) An ideal, but imaginary community in which laws, government, and social conditions operated for the benefit and well-being of all its inhabitants The term was coined by Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), from two Greek words which together mean "a good place " More made it the title of a book he wrote about an ideal community
A perfect, remote and almost unthinkably ideal 'place' (construed as a location, an era, a political state, or even a state of mind) and therefore the opposite of 'dystopia' Pictorial instances of utopian scenes are fairly commonplace, e g Arcadian vistas of the golden age (Greco-Roman wall paintings, some of the landscapes of Poussin and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, etc )
An utterly impractical plan or scheme for an ideal human existence which is unattainable because of the inherent character of man Utopians are impractical idealists or dreamers removed from reality
an imaginary and indefinitely remote place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions; an ideal and perfect place or state, where everyone lives in harmony and everything is for the best; or a description of such a place
an imaginary place considered to be perfect or ideal a work of fiction describing a utopia a book by Sir Thomas More (1516) describing the perfect society on an imaginary island ideally perfect state; especially in its social and political and moral aspects
A tale depicting a perfect human society The name derives from Sir Thomas More's 16th century book, though the Latin word "utopia" actually means "nowhere " Prime examples include Butler's Erewhon ["nowhere" spelled backwards] Bellamy's Looking Backward, and Russ' "A Few Things I Know About Whileaway" (in NBSF) A dystopia is an inverted utopia
properly means nowhere (Greek, ou topos) It is the imaginary island of Sir Thomas More, where everything is perfectthe laws, the morals, the politics, etc In this romance the evils of existing laws, etc , are shown by contrast (1516 ) (See Weissnichtwo ) Utopia, the kingdom of Grangousier When Pantagruel' sailed thither from France and had got into the main ocean, he doubled the Cape of Good Hope and made for the shores of Melinda Parting from Medamoth, he sailed with a northerly wind, passed Medam, Gelasem, and the Fairy Isles; and keeping Uti to the left and Uden to the right, ran into the port of Utopia, distant about three and a half leagues from the city of the Amaurots (Medamoth, from no place; Medam, nowhere; Gelasem, hidden land; Uti, nothing at all; Uden, nothing; Utopia, no place, distant three and a half leagues from Amauros, the vanishing point- all Greek ) (See Queubus )
If you refer to an imaginary situation as a utopia, you mean that it is one in which society is perfect and everyone is happy, but which you feel is not possible. We weren't out to design a contemporary utopia. the social utopias of revolutionary peasants. an imaginary perfect world where everyone is happy dystopia (Utopia imaginary perfect country in the book Utopia (1516) by Sir Thomas More, from ou + topos )