# optimism

Pronunciation: say "OP-ti-mi-zuhm" US /ˈɑptɪmɪzəm/, UK /ˈɒptɪmɪzəm/

## Noun

1. A hopeful outlook that expects things to turn out for the best, or at least well.
   - Simple: A way of thinking that expects good things to happen, even when times are hard.
   - _Despite the layoffs, she maintained her optimism about finding a new job._
   - _Investors showed cautious optimism as the market began to recover._
2. Confidence that, however things stand now, good is bound to defeat evil in the end.
   - Simple: The belief that good will win over evil in the end.
   - _The preacher's sermons radiated an optimism that evil, however powerful, would not have the final word._
   - _Throughout the resistance, her optimism that justice would ultimately prevail never wavered._
3. The philosophical doctrine that the existing world is better than any other world that could have existed.
   - Simple: The idea that our world is the best world that could exist.
   - _Voltaire wrote Candide to mock the optimism fashionable among eighteenth-century philosophers._
   - _Leibniz defended optimism by arguing that a perfect creator would necessarily choose the best possible world._

## Origin

From French "optimisme," which comes from Latin "optimus" ("best") combined with the suffix "-ism."

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