A utopia is an imagined place or society where everything is perfect: no poverty, no crime, no unfairness, everyone happy. It exists in someone's mind, in a book, or in a plan — not on any map. That is the point of the word, and there is a joke buried in its birth, which we will come to in 'parts'. Three ways you will meet it. First, as the name of an imaginary society in stories and political writing — Thomas More's book, and everything since. Second, in the phrase 'a utopia' or 'utopia' for any dreamed-of ideal world: 'a workers' utopia', 'a green utopia'. Third, loosely and warmly, for a real place that feels wonderful to someone: 'For a book lover, that shop is utopia.' In that last use it is an exaggeration and everyone knows it. There is a shadow on this word. Because so many attempts to build a perfect society ended badly, 'utopia' often carries a hint of 'lovely, but impossible' or even 'dangerous dream'. When someone says 'that's a utopia', they usually mean 'that will never work'. Its opposite is dystopia — an imagined terrible world (The Hunger Games, 1984), and in English today dystopia is honestly the more common word of the two. Plural: utopias. Often capitalized (Utopia) when it names More's island specifically.