I*de"al (?), a. [L. idealis: cf. F. idéal.] 1. Existing in idea or thought; conceptional; intellectual; mental; as, ideal knowledge.

2. Reaching an imaginary standard of excellence; fit for a model; faultless; as, ideal beauty. Byron.

There will always be a wide interval between practical and ideal excellence.

3. Existing in fancy or imagination only; visionary; unreal. "Planning ideal common wealth." Southey.

4. Teaching the doctrine of idealism; as, the ideal theory or philosophy.

5. (Math.) Imaginary.

Syn. -- Intellectual; mental; visionary; fanciful; imaginary; unreal; impracticable; utopian.

I*de"al (?), n. A mental conception regarded as a standard of perfection; a model of excellence, beauty, etc.

The ideal is to be attained by selecting and assembling in one whole the beauties and perfections which are usually seen in different individuals, excluding everything defective or unseemly, so as to form a type or model of the species. Thus, the Apollo Belvedere is the ideal of the beauty and proportion of the human frame.

• being optimal or relating to the best option for something
  
• being perfect, having no flaws or defects
  
• being something that exists only in the mind; CONCEPTUAL, IDEATIONAL
       Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds
  
• a perfect standard of beauty, intellect , etc., or a standard of excellence
  
• (numbertheory) Special subsets of a ring, used to restore unique factorization.
  
• (mathematics) In order theory, a special subset of a partially ordered set.
  
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• ideal
  
• ideal