A person who is guided more by ideals than by practical considerations. As an idealist, she believed that world peace could be achieved through dialogue and understanding.
A person who cherishes or pursues high or noble principles, purposes, goals, etc. The idealist in him always sought to find the good in people, even when others had given up.
A person who represents things as they might or should be rather than as they are. The artist was an idealist, often painting utopian landscapes that depicted a perfect world.
A believer in or advocate of the philosophical doctrine that reality is fundamentally mental or immaterial. As an idealist in metaphysics, he argued that matter could not exist independently of perception.