quixotean means quixotic. It carries an Arena rating of 1338, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, quixotean ranks #130 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #5,047 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #5,416 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #6,998 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
Why “quixotean” is a great word
Resembling or characteristic of Don Quixote in being foolishly idealistic, impractical, and romantically devoted to impossible causes. From the name of the literary character Don Quixote, the protagonist of Miguel de Cervantes's novel (1605, 1615), plus the English adjectival suffix -an. Unlike 'pragmatic,' which denotes a focus on achievable results, or 'cynical,' which implies a distrust of all sincerity, Quixotean describes a nobility untethered from reality. It is charging at windmills mistaken for giants, pledging undying fealty to a peasant girl imagined as a noble lady, and tilting earnestly against the inexorable tide of the mundane—a testament to the human compulsion to weave grandeur from threadbare cloth, and the quiet dignity of being wrong with your head held high.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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