ideology

i·de·ol·o·gy
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UK/ˌaɪ.diːˈɒl.ə.d͡ʒiː/British, Southern, Standard/ˌɑj.dɪjˈɔl.ə.d͡ʒɪj/US/aɪ.diˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/US/ɪ.diˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/

noun

Doctrine, philosophy, body of beliefs or principles belonging to an individual or group.

“A dictatorship bans things, that do not conform to its ideology, to secure its reign.”

Similar
political orientationpolitical theory
CommonScrabble 13

Meanings

nounideology (countable and uncountable, plural ideologies)

plural ideologies

  1. countableuncountableDoctrine, philosophy, body of beliefs or principles belonging to an individual or group.

    A dictatorship bans things, that do not conform to its ideology, to secure its reign.

    3 more examples

    This article examines how these three scholars use the term "Occitan" and ideologies of Occitanism to characterize southern France, and how such ideologies reflect the intellectual traditions in which they write.

    1987 April, Vera Mark, “In Search of the Occitan Village: Regionalist Ideologies and the Ethnography of Southern France”, in Anthropological Quarterly, volume 60, number 2, Washington, D.C.: George Washington University, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 64–70

    What is unbearable, in fact, is the feeling, 13 years after 9/11, that America has been chasing its tail; that, in some whack-a-mole horror show, the quashing of a jihadi enclave here only spurs the sprouting of another there; that the ideology of Al Qaeda is still reverberating through a blocked Arab world whose Sunni-Shia balance (insofar as that went) was upended by the American invasion of Iraq.

    2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS [print version: International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 9]”, in The New York Times

    Ideology constantly gets in the way. For the Government, unions are militant "Trots" out to cause political trouble. For the unions, the private sector is a grasping, evil leech. Neither is true.

    2022 August 24, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Rail strikes deadlock”, in RAIL, number 964, page 3
  2. uncountableThe study of the origin and nature of ideas.

Synonyms & antonyms

nounan orientation that characterizes the thinking of a group or nation

Similar
political orientationpolitical theory
Also see

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Frenchidéologie
  2. Englishideology

Borrowed from French idéologie, from idéo- + -logie (equivalent to English ideo- + -logy). Cognate with, but not derived from, idea. Coined 1796 by Antoine Destutt de Tracy. Modern sense of “doctrine” attributed to use of related idéologue (“ideologue”) by Napoleon Bonaparte as a term of abuse towards political opponents in early 1800s.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Afrikaans ideologie, ideologie
  • ideologiedoctrine, body of ideas
  • ideologiestudy of the origin and nature of ideas
Arabic أَيْدِيُولُوجِيَا
  • أَيْدِيُولُوجِيَا (ʔaydiyūlūjiyā)doctrine, body of ideas
Bengali ভাবাদর্শ
  • ভাবাদর্শ (bhabadorśo)doctrine, body of ideas
Bulgarian идеоло́гия
  • идеоло́гия (ideológija)doctrine, body of ideas
Catalan ideologia
  • ideologiadoctrine, body of ideas
Chinese Mandarin 意識形態 /意识形态, 思想意識 /思想意识
  • 意識形態 /意识形态 (yìshi xíngtài)doctrine, body of ideas
  • 思想意識 /思想意识 (sīxiǎng yìshi)doctrine, body of ideas
  • 思想體系 /思想体系 (sīxiǎng tǐxì)doctrine, body of ideas
  • 意締牢結 /意缔牢结 (yìdìláojié)doctrine, body of ideas
  • 理念 (lǐniàn)doctrine, body of ideas
  • 觀念學 /观念学study of the origin and nature of ideas
Czech ideologie
  • ideologiedoctrine, body of ideas
Danish ideologi
  • ideologidoctrine, body of ideas
Dutch ideologie
  • ideologiedoctrine, body of ideas
Esperanto idearo
  • idearodoctrine, body of ideas
Estonian ideoloogia
  • ideoloogiadoctrine, body of ideas
Finnish ideologia, aatemaailma
  • ideologiadoctrine, body of ideas
  • aatemaailmadoctrine, body of ideas
  • maailmankatsomusdoctrine, body of ideas
  • ideaoppistudy of the origin and nature of ideas
French idéologie, idéologie
  • idéologiedoctrine, body of ideas
  • idéologiestudy of the origin and nature of ideas
German Ideologie
  • Ideologiedoctrine, body of ideas
Greek ιδεολογία
  • ιδεολογία (ideología)doctrine, body of ideas
Hebrew אִידֵאוֹלוֹגִיָה
  • אִידֵאוֹלוֹגִיָה (ideológya)doctrine, body of ideas
Hindi विचारधारा, नज़रिया
  • विचारधारा (vicārdhārā)doctrine, body of ideas
  • नज़रिया (nazariyā)doctrine, body of ideas
Hungarian ideológia
  • ideológiadoctrine, body of ideas
Icelandic hugmyndafræði
  • hugmyndafræðidoctrine, body of ideas
Indonesian ideologi
  • ideologidoctrine, body of ideas
Irish idé-eolaíocht, idé-eolaíocht
  • idé-eolaíochtdoctrine, body of ideas
  • idé-eolaíochtstudy of the origin and nature of ideas
Italian ideologia
  • ideologiadoctrine, body of ideas
Japanese 観念形態, イデオロギー
  • 観念形態 (kannen keitai)doctrine, body of ideas
  • イデオロギー (ideorogī)doctrine, body of ideas
  • 理念 (rinen)doctrine, body of ideas
Korean 이데올로기, 이념
  • 이데올로기 (ide'ollogi)doctrine, body of ideas
  • 이념 (inyeom)doctrine, body of ideas
  • 리념 (rinyeom)doctrine, body of ideas
  • 관념학 (gwannyeomhak)study of the origin and nature of ideas
Latin ideologia
  • ideologiadoctrine, body of ideas
Latvian ideoloģija
  • ideoloģijadoctrine, body of ideas
Lithuanian ideologija
  • ideologijadoctrine, body of ideas
Malay ideologi, adicita
  • ideologidoctrine, body of ideas
  • adicitadoctrine, body of ideas
Māori kaupapa whakaaro
  • kaupapa whakaarodoctrine, body of ideas
Norwegian Bokmål ideologi
  • ideologidoctrine, body of ideas
Polish ideologia
  • ideologiadoctrine, body of ideas
Portuguese ideologia
  • ideologiadoctrine, body of ideas
Punjabi ਵਿਚਾਰਧਾਰਾ
  • ਵਿਚਾਰਧਾਰਾ (vicārdhārā)doctrine, body of ideas
Romanian ideologie, ideologie
  • ideologiedoctrine, body of ideas
  • ideologiestudy of the origin and nature of ideas
Russian идеоло́гия, мировоззре́ние
  • идеоло́гия (ideológija)doctrine, body of ideas
  • мировоззре́ние (mirovozzrénije)doctrine, body of ideas
  • идеоло́гия (ideológija)study of the origin and nature of ideas
Slovak ideológia
  • ideológiadoctrine, body of ideas
Spanish ideología, ideología
  • ideologíadoctrine, body of ideas
  • ideologíastudy of the origin and nature of ideas
Swedish ideologi
  • ideologidoctrine, body of ideas
Tagalog sangkuruan, palakuruan
  • sangkuruandoctrine, body of ideas
  • palakuruanstudy of the origin and nature of ideas
Thai อุดมการณ์
  • อุดมการณ์ (ù-dom-má-gaan)doctrine, body of ideas
Turkish ideoloji
  • ideolojidoctrine, body of ideas
Ukrainian ідеоло́гія
  • ідеоло́гія (ideolóhija)doctrine, body of ideas
Urdu نَظَرِیَہ
  • نَظَرِیَہ (nazariya)doctrine, body of ideas
Vietnamese ý thức hệ, hệ tư tưởng
  • ý thức hệdoctrine, body of ideas
  • hệ tư tưởngdoctrine, body of ideas
  • ý hệdoctrine, body of ideas
Yiddish אידעאָלאָגיע
  • אידעאָלאָגיע (ideologye)doctrine, body of ideas

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with ideology

All rhymes →

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

ideology. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ideology

MLA

“ideology.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ideology. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ideology,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ideology.

Source: ideology on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.