ideal
German, adjective
ideal is spelled I-D-E-A-L (5 letters) and appears 16 times per million words in written German, the 4,698th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Ideal is a German adjective meaning “ideal (optimal, perfect)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Ideal is a different word: “ideal (perfect standard, standard of excellence)”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “passend, genau richtig, sehr geeignet oder mustergültig seiend”.
What does ideal mean in English?
adjective
- 1
ideal (optimal, perfect)
noun
- 1
neuterideal (perfect standard, standard of excellence)
- 2
neuterideal
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. passend, genau richtig, sehr geeignet oder mustergültig seiend 2. sich auf ein Ideal beziehend, in der Art und Weise eines Ideals 3. nur in der Vorstellung vorhanden
noun: 1. ein als höchsten Wert erkanntes Ziel, eine angestrebte Idee der Vollkommenheit 2. eine bezüglich der Addition und der Ringmultiplikation abgeschlossene Unterstruktur eines Ringes
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of ideal
- idealer masculine nominative singular
- am idealsten colloquial superlative
- ideale feminine nominative singular
- ideales neuter nominative singular
- idealen genitive masculine singular
- idealem dative masculine singular
- der ideale definite includes-article masculine
- die ideale definite feminine includes-article
- das ideale definite includes-article neuter
- die idealen definite includes-article nominative
- des idealen definite genitive includes-article
- der idealen definite feminine genitive
- dem idealen dative definite includes-article
- Ideale nominative plural
- Ideals genitive singular
- Idealen dative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to ideal
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is ideal in German?
ideal appears 16 times per million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).