laputan
Học thuậtThân thiện
A professor dismissed the student's laputan proposal for a perpetual motion machine.
Definition
- Adjective:
- Impractical, unrealistic, or wildly fanciful: Describes ideas, plans, or theories that are not based in reality or are impossible to realize.
- Relating to the fictional flying island of Laputa or its inhabitants: Pertaining to the imaginary land of Laputa, as depicted in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, which is inhabited by absurdly speculative and impractical intellectuals.
Usage Examples
- Adjective (Impractical):
- His plan for a perpetual motion machine was dismissed as a laputan fantasy.
- The committee rejected the laputan proposal to build a city in the clouds.
- Adjective (Relating to Laputa):
- The novel's laputan society was obsessed with abstract mathematics to the point of absurdity.
- She wrote a paper analyzing the laputan disregard for practical matters in Swift's satire.
Advanced Usage
- "laputan speculation": Refers to theorizing that is completely detached from practical considerations.
- The economic debate was mired in laputan speculation with no connection to real-world data.
- "laputan project": Describes a scheme or endeavor that is grandiose but utterly unrealistic.
- The government was criticized for funding another laputan project that was doomed to fail.
Variants and Related Words
- Laputa (Proper Noun): The name of the fictional flying island in , the source of the adjective.
- Visionary (Adj): Having or showing clear ideas about what should happen in the future. (Can be positive or, like , imply impracticality).
- Chimerical (Adj): Hoped for but illusory or impossible to achieve.
- Quixotic (Adj): Exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.
Synonyms
- Airy
- Speculative
- Utopian (when implying impractical idealism)
- Fanciful
- Unrealistic
Antonyms
- Practical
- Realistic
- Feasible
- Sensible
- Pragmatic
Related Idioms and Phrases
- "Castles in the air": Plans or hopes that have very little chance of happening. (This idiom shares the sense of fanciful impracticality conveyed by ).
- Talking about colonizing Mars now is just building castles in the air.
- "Pipe dream": An unattainable or fanciful hope or scheme.
- His idea of becoming a billionaire by next year is a complete pipe dream.
A professor dismissed the student's laputan proposal for a perpetual motion machine.
Adjective
- not practical or realizable; speculative
- airy theories about socioeconomic improvement
- visionary schemes for getting rich
- relating to or characteristic of the imaginary country of Laputa or its people