ideal type


noun
  1. a construct abstracted from experience in which individual elements are combined to form a whole that is conceptually independent of empirical factors or variables, but against which particular examples of the appropriate class found in life can be measured.

Origin of ideal type

1
First recorded in 1925–30

Words Nearby ideal type

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use ideal type in a sentence

  • The ideal types of microphones for a given situation directly capture your intended audio source, such as your voice or a musical instrument, without picking up any other nearby sound.

  • And why did Chopin regard Mozart as the ideal type, the poet par excellence?

  • Hers was the ideal type of Japanese feature, so rarely seen amongst the common people, and considered so unlovely by Europeans.

    In Eastern Seas | J. J. Smith
  • In the Old Testament the ideal type is the "just man," who conformed to ritual standards at all points.

    Folkways | William Graham Sumner
  • He was the ideal type of the feudal lord for whom no interest prevails against his own.

    Belgium | Emile Cammaerts