# ideology

Pronunciation: US say "y-dee-AH-luh-jee" /aɪ.diˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/; say "y-dee-OL-uh-jee" UK /ˌaɪ.diːˈɒl.ə.d͡ʒiː/, AUS /ˌɑɪ.diːˈɔl.ə.d͡ʒiː/

## Noun

1. A body of beliefs, principles, or doctrines held by an individual or group, often shaping their political or social outlook.
   - Simple: A set of beliefs and ideas that a person or group holds, often about politics or society.
   - _The party's ideology rested on free markets and limited government._
   - _Competing ideologies divided the nation throughout the twentieth century._
2. The branch of inquiry concerned with the origin and nature of ideas.
   - Simple: The study of where ideas come from and what they are really like.
   - _Eighteenth-century thinkers founded ideology as the systematic study of how ideas arise._
   - _His lectures on ideology examined the link between sensation and thought._

## Origin

This word was borrowed from French idéologie, formed from idéo- ("idea") plus -logie ("study of"). It was coined in 1796 by Antoine Destutt de Tracy, and although related to "idea," it is not derived from it. The modern sense of "doctrine" is attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte's use of the related word idéologue as an insult toward political opponents in the early 1800s.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/ideology (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).