Meaning & use
utopia
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Meanings
nouncountable
An imagined society or place where laws, government, and living conditions are as good as they could be.
Grammar: Countable: an ideal utopia.
Patterns
- a utopia of something
The novel describes an utopia without poverty.
Philosophers have dreamed of an utopia for centuries.
No real city is a perfect utopia.
nouncountableinformal
Any place or situation that seems ideal, often used loosely or with a hint of doubt.
Grammar: Casual, sometimes ironic.
Patterns
- a utopia for someone
The island was an utopia for divers.
This quiet library feels like an utopia to me.
Some call the plan an utopia that can never work.
Word forms
| plural | utopias |
|---|
Common combinations
- perfect utopia
- No one built a perfect utopia.
- build a utopia
- The group tried to build an utopia.
- utopia of
- They imagined an utopia of equality.
- pursuit of utopia
- The pursuit of utopia often ends in failure.
- utopia or dystopia
- The film asks whether technology brings utopia or dystopia.
Synonyms and how they differ
- paradise
- Paradise often means a place of great beauty or bliss, not a planned society.
- heaven
- Heaven has strong religious meaning, while utopia is about human society.
- Eden
- Eden is a literary reference to a pure, original paradise.
- ideal society
- Ideal society is a plain description and lacks the idea of an impossible dream.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: utopia or dystopia?
utopia vs dystopia
Dystopia is the opposite: an imagined society where life is miserable and unfair.
Practice
A society with no poverty, crime or conflict would be described as a ____.
Choose one answer.
Utopia is an ideal society. Dystopia is its terrible opposite.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “utopia”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.