Ideal

[ahy-dee-uh l, ahy-deel] /aɪˈdi əl, aɪˈdil/

noun
1.
a conception of something in its perfection.
2.
a standard of perfection or excellence.
3.
a person or thing conceived as embodying such a conception or conforming to such a standard, and taken as a model for imitation:
Thomas Jefferson was his ideal.
4.
an ultimate object or aim of endeavor, especially one of high or noble character:
He refuses to compromise any of his ideals.
5.
something that exists only in the imagination:
To achieve the ideal is almost hopeless.
6.
Mathematics. a subring of a ring, any element of which when multiplied by any element of the ring results in an element of the subring.
adjective
7.
conceived as constituting a standard of perfection or excellence:
ideal beauty.
8.
regarded as perfect of its kind:
an ideal spot for a home.
9.
existing only in the imagination; not real or actual:
Nature is real; beauty is ideal.
10.
advantageous; excellent; best:
It would be ideal if she could accompany us as she knows the way.
11.
based upon an ideal or ideals:
the ideal theory of numbers.
12.
Philosophy.

/aɪˈdɪəl/
noun
1.
a conception of something that is perfect, esp that which one seeks to attain
2.
a person or thing considered to represent perfection: he’s her ideal
3.
something existing only as an idea
4.
a pattern or model, esp of ethical behaviour
adjective
5.
conforming to an ideal
6.
of, involving, or existing in the form of an idea
7.
(philosophy)

adj.

early 15c., “pertaining to an archetype or model,” from Late Latin idealis “existing in idea,” from Latin idea in the Platonic sense (see idea). Sense of “perfect” first recorded 1610s.
n.

“perfect person or thing,” 1796, in a translation of Kant, from ideal (adj.).

ideal i·de·al (ī-dē’əl, ī-dēl’)
n.

1. Ideal DEductive Applicative Language. A language by Pier Bosco and Elio Giovannetti combining Miranda and Prolog. Function definitions can have a guard condition (introduced by “:-“) which is a conjunction of equalities between arbitrary terms, including functions. These guards are solved by normal Prolog resolution and unification. It was originally compiled into C-Prolog but was eventually to be compiled to K-leaf.
2. A numerical constraint language written by Van Wyk of Stanford in 1980 for typesetting graphics in documents. It was inspired partly by Metafont and is distributed as part of Troff.
[“A High-Level Language for Specifying Pictures”, C.J. Van Wyk, ACM Trans Graphics 1(2):163-182 (Apr 1982)].
(1994-12-15)

theory
In domain theory, a non-empty, downward closed subset which is also closed under binary least upper bounds. I.e. anything less than an element is also an element and the least upper bound of any two elements is also an element.
(1997-09-26)