as in theoretical
dealing with or expressing a quality or idea
ideograms are ideational—they are meant to suggest some general idea and not a particular word or phrase
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Recent Examples of ideational
The ideational content of the image — a man killing another man on a public sidewalk — is only half the message.
—
F.k. Plous, Chicago Tribune, 8 Jan. 2025
This process, which Doten-Snitker and her coauthors term ideational diffusion, often took many years as people in towns and cities needed time to digest new ideas about witchcraft and turn them into behavior.
—Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 8 Oct. 2024
The ideational content of the image — a man killing another man on a public sidewalk — is only half the message.
—F.k. Plous, Chicago Tribune, 8 Jan. 2025
The United States, of course, cannot share everything—physical or ideational—with its partners.
—Thomas G. Mahnken, Foreign Affairs, 5 June 2024
This ideational convergence, deepened by two decades of accumulating trust between India and the United States, has enhanced the strategic partnership and set the stage for even closer cooperation in the future.
—Ashley J. Tellis, Foreign Affairs, 20 Feb. 2020
Steven Spielberg extends Griffith’s and Ford’s historical insight through an astonishing mix of visual and ideational dialectics.
—Armond White, National Review, 28 June 2023
Einstein’s theories as ideational relativism.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 3 May 2021
And the Trump Administration is taking concrete steps to encourage this ideational fusion.
—Time, 13 Dec. 2019
F.k. Plous, Chicago Tribune, 8 Jan. 2025
This process, which Doten-Snitker and her coauthors term ideational diffusion, often took many years as people in towns and cities needed time to digest new ideas about witchcraft and turn them into behavior.
—Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 8 Oct. 2024
The ideational content of the image — a man killing another man on a public sidewalk — is only half the message.
—F.k. Plous, Chicago Tribune, 8 Jan. 2025
The United States, of course, cannot share everything—physical or ideational—with its partners.
—Thomas G. Mahnken, Foreign Affairs, 5 June 2024
This ideational convergence, deepened by two decades of accumulating trust between India and the United States, has enhanced the strategic partnership and set the stage for even closer cooperation in the future.
—Ashley J. Tellis, Foreign Affairs, 20 Feb. 2020
Steven Spielberg extends Griffith’s and Ford’s historical insight through an astonishing mix of visual and ideational dialectics.
—Armond White, National Review, 28 June 2023
Einstein’s theories as ideational relativism.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 3 May 2021
And the Trump Administration is taking concrete steps to encourage this ideational fusion.
—Time, 13 Dec. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ideational
Adjective
-
Indeed, the risk of diversion from Plaintiff's sales is more than theoretical—the government can prove that Plaintiff actually sold LSD to a minor as well as an undercover officer.—
Thomas G. Moukawsher,
MSNBC Newsweek,
25 Apr. 2025
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Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, for example, can yet orchestrate a theoretical swing of close to £12million ($16m), a significant sum for those requiring summer rebuilds on finite resources.—
Philip Buckingham,
New York Times,
25 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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The song borders on the absurd, but its faith in the metaphysical properties of a melody is infectious.—
Craig Jenkins,
Vulture,
22 Apr. 2025
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But now, almost five years after the pandemic, what exactly is driving this metaphysical renaissance?—
Michaela Trimble,
Vogue,
21 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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In this sense, generative A.I. might count as a conceptual win for my field.—
D. Graham Burnett,
New Yorker,
26 Apr. 2025
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That Cold War playbook—containment, deterrence, ideological messaging, and eventual collapse—became America's conceptual toolkit for managing future rivals.—
Thomas G. Moukawsher,
MSNBC Newsweek,
24 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
Go behind the scenes of our most abstract assignment of the year.—
Kendra Vaculin,
Bon Appetit Magazine,
25 Apr. 2025
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Gomes’s sculptures have a biomorphic feel to them, even while being fully abstract.—
Grace Edquist,
Vogue,
25 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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This definition also includes instance in which the victim is incapable of giving consent because of temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity (include due to the influence of drugs or alcohol) or because of age.—
Baltimore Sun staff,
Baltimore Sun,
11 Apr. 2025
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Without supervision or regulation, kids can easily stumble upon explicit material, including violent and extremist content, that can lead to mental distress, desensitization and a warped perception of the world around them.—
Richard Wistocki,
Chicago Tribune,
10 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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This helps the church establish leaders, college presidents and intellectual leaders.—
Thomas G. Moukawsher,
MSNBC Newsweek,
25 Apr. 2025
-
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Clement clerked for the federal appeals-court judge Laurence Silberman, the intellectual godfather to generations of conservative lawyers, and then for Justice Antonin Scalia.—
Ruth Marcus,
New Yorker,
25 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ideational.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ideational. Accessed 29 Apr. 2025.
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