What's the difference between utopia and visionary?

Utopia


Definition:

  • (n.) An imaginary island, represented by Sir Thomas More, in a work called Utopia, as enjoying the greatest perfection in politics, laws, and the like. See Utopia, in the Dictionary of Noted Names in Fiction.
  • (n.) Hence, any place or state of ideal perfection.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In the tech-utopia of the on-demand economy it is said all can have prizes.
  • (2) We need to fight might and main against those Conservatives who see Brexit as a mandate to introduce a free-market utopia at the expense of working people.
  • (3) Even at its point of greatest influence, then, there was resistance to the politically laden and overdetermining visions of utopia in which modernisation theorists like Rostow traded.
  • (4) He says it’s a fully realised democratic utopia, like the Barcelona admired by Orwell during the Spanish civil war, and tears run down his cheeks when he leaves.
  • (5) Wikipedia would like to believe that it is the good face of the 21st century, a digital utopia, the guardian of the original promise of the internet.
  • (6) This was a galaxy-spanning utopia whose name was chosen for its self-deprecating modesty, rather than something grandiose like the Federation or the Empire.
  • (7) Camille Carnoz of the collective, said: “Today is symbolic, it’s about giving people a dream, showing us what a city could look like without cars, a type of utopia.
  • (8) They don’t see our battle against people’s everyday problems, that life is not a utopia.” I need capitalism to work, because I have to levy taxes to attend to the serious problems we have As in other countries in the region, an economic boom largely fuelled by China’s growing need for food has lifted vast numbers out of poverty, down from 40 to 12% in a decade.
  • (9) The president portrayed a utopia – peace, security, a bright future for children.
  • (10) As the historian Samuel Moyn has argued in his book The Last Utopia, it was not until the late 1970s that human rights became a major force in international relations.
  • (11) But to Ruqayah, it was a utopia I could never get used to hearing people talk about martyrdom.
  • (12) In shifting the focus of regulation from reining in institutional and corporate malfeasance to perpetual electronic guidance of individuals, algorithmic regulation offers us a good-old technocratic utopia of politics without politics.
  • (13) Across the hallway at the BFI this weekend, another post-screening discussion of the documentary Utopia London , including Owen Hatherley, tackled how the capital's postwar housing experiments could be redeemed for the 21st century.
  • (14) At the time, Birol told the Guardian that constraining global warming to moderate levels would be "only a nice utopia" unless drastic action was taken.
  • (15) One called A Prophecy for 1973 imagines a future utopia without poverty and hunger, which seems as distant today as in 1873 when it was probably composed.
  • (16) He refers to it as an "action-steering utopia of the psychoanalytic process".
  • (17) If I could launch just one experiment, it may well be that I temporarily banish all straight men from the planet for six months (don't worry – I would send you to planet Jock where you could drive around on quad bikes or in Porsches, and in the evening there would be poker and beer), and see if this peaceful utopia occurred.
  • (18) Not just Broadchurch but The Fall and Top of the Lake, both on BBC2 (and both BPG nominees), Utopia and Southcliffe on Channel 4 and intriguing one-offs such as BBC2's The Wipers Times, co-written by Ian Hislop, another BPG winner.
  • (19) "We have too many languages and cultures, indeed, the idea of an unique [European] newspaper is for now just a utopia.
  • (20) "Our contemporary impotence" comes exactly from this: on the one hand, we find the old left melancholy when it comes to waging concrete struggles in the existing institutions and in the streets and squares, and on the other hand, there is the masturbation on a utopia that will never come true.

Visionary


Definition:

  • (a.) Of or pertaining to a visions or visions; characterized by, appropriate to, or favorable for, visions.
  • (a.) Affected by phantoms; disposed to receive impressions on the imagination; given to reverie; apt to receive, and act upon, fancies as if they were realities.
  • (a.) Existing in imagination only; not real; fanciful; imaginary; having no solid foundation; as, visionary prospect; a visionary scheme or project.
  • (n.) One whose imagination is disturbed; one who sees visions or phantoms.
  • (n.) One whose imagination overpowers his reason and controls his judgment; an unpractical schemer; one who builds castles in the air; a daydreamer.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) That is what needs to happen for this company, which started out as a rebellious presence in the business, determined to get credit for its creative visionaries.
  • (2) A "visionary leader," said Tony Blair; "one of the greatest leaders of our time," echoed Bill Clinton.
  • (3) Such visionary people have a vital role to play in helping the world to find the strength needed to address its problems.
  • (4) It was estimated at the roundtable that 25% of GPs who take on commissioning responsibility do so not because they are "visionaries", but because they are looking for new business opportunities, a contributor said.
  • (5) But the voters were unimpressed with both leaders’ “vision” – only 31% thought Abbott was “visionary” and 30% thought Shorten was.
  • (6) The visionary statesman of the 2009 Cairo speech failed to seize the opportunity of the Arab spring, especially in Egypt, where well over $1bn in aid gave the US real leverage with Egypt’s now again dominant, repressive military.
  • (7) His once-visionary keywords have grotesque afterlives: Big Brother is a TV franchise to make celebrities of nobodies and Room 101 a light-entertainment show on BBC2 currently hosted by Frank Skinner for celebrities to witter about stuff that gets their goat.
  • (8) His visionary prospectus was for nations to come together to underpin global prosperity and thus freedom – and for which a single currency was an indispensable pillar.
  • (9) Tate Modern, London, 16 October to 9 March, tate.org.uk Australia The complex art traditions of this remarkable continent – from Aboriginal dreamings and immigrant Romantic painters to the visionary Sidney Nolan – interweave in what promises to be a compelling epic spanning centuries of landscape and myth.
  • (10) He called on ministers last week to stop the "madness" of fast food outlets opening near schools and for a "visionary" to lead a renewed drive against obesity.
  • (11) And then the retailers come along and – look, most retailers are not visionaries.
  • (12) Museveni seems to have suddenly decided that human rights are an import from the west that cannot be tolerated; and that democracy is compatible with a politician holding a life presidency – provided the person in power is a visionary like him.
  • (13) Last year it won an award from Visionary , the membership organisation for local independent charities that support blind and partially sighted people across the UK.
  • (14) Visionary language is rarely heard from pro-Europeans these days; attempts to cast the EU as a morally based endeavour risk ridicule and scorn.
  • (15) Until there is genuine political leadership on this issue the system will remain failing.” The prime minister courted what he called the “visionary” Kids Company during his mission to detoxify the Tory party while in opposition, and cited it in his infamous “hug a hoodie” speech in 2006 as an exemplar of the type of public service he wanted to see – one which concentrated on “emotional quality” rather than hitting bureaucratic targets.
  • (16) It is the bold agenda against the timid one; the visionaries against those who believe Labour can limp home with a few safe offerings that can fit safely on the back of a pledge card.
  • (17) The chancellor's habit of letting reason triumph over visionary impulses and Kohl-type breakaways is clear to see.
  • (18) Why the Victorians managed to be so visionary is not entirely clear, but it had something to do with the confidence of an age of discovery both in science and other areas of knowledge, and also in geographical exploration and empire building.
  • (19) The deputy prime minister will issue a "call to arms for visionaries" to set out radical plans for new housing schemes as he announces the publication of a prospectus inviting bids from councils.
  • (20) He’s a very intelligent guy, he is a visionary and he has an approach to football that I think is remarkable … I’ve been saying to the president for a while: ‘Rémi is our Guardiola’,” said Bernard Lacombe, the long-time adviser to the Lyon president, Jean-Michel Aulas.