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| n. 1. Something, such as a thought or conception, that is the product of mental activity. 2. An opinion, conviction, or principle: has some strange political ideas. 3. A plan, purpose, or goal: She started school with the idea of becoming a doctor. 4. The gist or significance: The idea of the article is that investing in green technology can save you money in the long run. 5. A sense that something can happen; a notion or expectation: They have this idea that we can just drop what we're doing and go to the park. 6. Music A theme or motif. 7. Philosophy a. In the philosophy of Plato, a non-physical form or archetype to which beings in phenomenal reality correspond only as imperfect replicas. b. In the philosophy of Kant, a concept of reason that is transcendent but nonempirical. c. In the philosophy of Hegel, absolute truth; the complete and ultimate product of reason. 8. Obsolete A mental image of something remembered. [Middle English, from Latin, from Greek; see weid- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] i·dea·less adj. Synonyms: idea, thought, notion, concept, conception These nouns refer to what is formed or represented in the mind as the product of mental activity. Idea has the widest range: “Human history is in essence a history of ideas” (H.G. Wells). Thought is distinctively intellectual and stresses contemplation and reasoning: She gathered her thoughts before she spoke. Notion suggests an often intuitive idea or image conceived by the mind: “All that came to mind was a notion of galactic space, of spirals, the Horse Nebula, all of which were distant and mysterious and cold” (Craig Nova). Concept and conception are applied to mental formulations on a broad scale: You seem to have absolutely no concept of time. “Every succeeding scientific discovery makes greater nonsense of old-time conceptions of sovereignty” (Anthony Eden). |
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