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Definitions

idea

[ahy-dee-uh, ahy-deeuh] / aɪˈdi ə, aɪˈdiə /


Usage

What are other ways to say idea? The noun idea, although it may refer to thoughts of any degree of seriousness or triviality, is commonly used for mental concepts considered more important or elaborate: We pondered the idea of the fourth dimension. The idea of his arrival frightened me. Thought, which reflects its primary emphasis on the mental process, may denote any concept except the more weighty and elaborate ones: I welcomed his thoughts on the subject. A thought came to him. Conception suggests a thought that seems complete, individual, recent, or somewhat intricate: The architect's conception delighted them. Notion suggests a fleeting, vague, or imperfect thought: a bare notion of how to proceed.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

“Do I think it would be a good idea? Yes, but at the end of the day, the shareholders have to be supportive of this.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

So if you have that money, absolutely, that’s a good idea.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 22, 2026

"But that's what makes it exciting to reach. No one is sure exactly what created this layer, but one idea is it may be ash deposited by ancient volcanic eruptions."

From Science Daily ● Oct. 22, 2026

“I realized there are people here who have no idea what this movie is,” Cvijic said, laughing.

From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2026

And there was the fashion show, the pieces that Formann’s was going to rent from the shop, the theme that had been my very own idea.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

They are signing up in part for, here’s that word again, an experiment, but also to be on a TV show; they go in with ideas and assumptions about both.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

Ushakov said their ideas were not very "useful".

From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2026

"He'll now, armed with those ideas, be able to go to Saint Petersburg and share them with the Russian side -- and let's see if we can make some progress," Rubio said.

From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026

One of his ideas is to draw attention to a coffee shop by calling it “Dumb Starbucks.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026

Since I would be doing the calculations on whatever ideas they discussed, I thought that I should be in the meeting too.

From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson


Vocabulary lists containing idea

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