Noun

(en-noun)

(heraldry) A sentence, phrase, or word, forming part of an heraldic achievement.

A sentence, phrase, or word, prefixed to an essay, discourse, chapter, canto, or the like, suggestive of its subject matter; a short, suggestive expression of a guiding principle; a maxim.

* (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)

It was the motto of a bishop eminent for his piety and good works, ... Serve God, and be cheerful.

*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)

, chapter=1 citation , passage=“[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
  Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […]”}}

Noun

(philosophy) An abstract archetype of a given thing, compared to which real-life examples are seen as imperfect approximations; pure essence, as opposed to actual examples.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-10-19, volume=409, issue=8858, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Trouble at the lab , passage=The idea that the same experiments always get the same results, no matter who performs them, is one of the cornerstones of science’s claim to objective truth. If a systematic campaign of replication does not lead to the same results, then either the original research is flawed (as the replicators claim) or the replications are (as many of the original researchers on priming contend). Either way, something is awry.}}

(obsolete) The conception of someone or something as representing a perfect example; an ideal.

(obsolete) The form or shape of something; a quintessential aspect or characteristic.

*, II.6:

The remembrance whereof (which yet I beare deepely imprinted in my minde) representing me her visage and Idea so lively and so naturally, doth in some sort reconcile me unto her.

An image of an object that is formed in the mind or recalled by the memory.

More generally, any result of mental activity; a thought, a notion; a way of thinking.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=3 , passage=Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.}}

* 1952 , (Alfred Whitney Griswold)

Ideas won't go to jail.

A conception in the mind of something to be done; a plan for doing something, an (l).

* , chapter=3

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=71, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= End of the peer show , passage=Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.}}

A vague or fanciful (l); a feeling or hunch; an impression.

(music) A musical theme or melodic subject.