idea
/ʌɪˈdɪə
/noun
1A thought or suggestion as to a possible course of action: recently, the idea of linking pay to performance has caught on it’s a good idea to do some research before you go...
- The Trust is also on the look out for new members to put forward suggestions and ideas for future projects.
- None of this is to suggest that the driver retraining course is a bad idea or a soft option.
- Many of the audience have pledged to do far more than just one of the ideas suggested in the programme.
Synonyms
plan, design, scheme, project, proposal, proposition, suggestion, recommendation, aim, intention, objective, object, purpose, end, goal, target
1.1 [in singular] A mental impression: our menu list will give you some idea of how interesting a low-fat diet can be...
- He probably had the best idea of what was going on of anyone in this room, besides me, that is.
- Women probably have a better idea of the male world and male values than men do of women's.
- Many of us perhaps have little idea what it must be like to be in the depths of despair.
Synonyms
concept, notion, conception, conceptualization, thought, image, mental picture, visualization, abstraction, perception;
hypothesis, postulation
1.2An opinion or belief: nineteenth-century ideas about drinking...
- No other institution enjoys such sweeping powers to suppress the expression of opinions and ideas.
- Instead we must turn to what is intelligible: the values, beliefs and ideas revealed by art.
- In my opinion, these ideas and ideals are slipping fast, and we need to fight for them.
Synonyms
thought, theory, view, viewpoint, opinion, feeling, outlook, belief, judgement, conclusion
2 (the idea) The aim or purpose: I took a job with the idea of getting some money together...
- It involves listening to the other side, not with the idea of debate but for the purpose of learning.
- Perhaps the idea of us meeting up again was not the purpose of our encounter.
- Allan has other ideas, of course, and a bid for one or other of his rivals now looks certain.
Synonyms
purpose, point, aim, object, objective, goal, intention, end, end in view, design, reason, use, utility, sense, motive;
value, advantage
3 Philosophy (In Platonic thought) an eternally existing pattern of which individual things in any class are imperfect copies.For example, the "Form" or "Idea" of a horse is intelligible, abstract, and applies to all horses....
- The idea "cat" is simply pure "catness" which exists and moves about the world of Ideas.
3.1(In Kantian thought) a concept of pure reason, not empirically based in experience.In contrast, Kant calls the concepts of pure reason 'transcendental ideas.'...
- Kant nonetheless takes the ideas of God, the soul, and the world to have a valid philosophical use as regulative, i.e., for guiding the direction of inquiry to be all the more encompassing in scope.
Phrases
get (or give someone) ideas
have (got) no idea
not someone's idea of
put ideas into someone's head
that's an idea
that's the idea
the very idea!
you have no idea
Origin
Late Middle English (in sense 3): via Latin from Greek idea 'form, pattern', from the base of idein 'to see'.