imagery

imagery (ˈɪmɪdʒrɪ, -dʒərɪ)

—n , pl -ries
1.	figurative or descriptive language in a literary work
2.	images collectively
3.	psychol
	a. the materials or general processes of the imagination
	b. image See also imagination the characteristic kind of mental images formed by a particular individual
4.	military the presentation of objects reproduced photographically (by infrared or electronic means) as prints or electronic displays

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

imagery

early 14c., from O.Fr. imagerie (13c.), from imagier, from image (see image).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

imagery im·age·ry (ĭm'ĭj-rē)
n.

A set of mental pictures or images.
A technique in behavior therapy in which the patient is conditioned to use pleasant fantasies to counteract the unpleasant feelings associated with anxiety.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

imagery definition

The mental pictures created by a piece of writing: “The imagery of “The Waste Land” — crumbling towers, dried-up wells, toppled tombstones — conveys the author's sense of a civilization in decay.”

Easton

Bible Dictionary

Imagery definition

only in the phrase "chambers of his imagery" (Ezek. 8:12). (See CHAMBER.)

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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Example sentences

He believes they originate in portions of the brain that store visual memories

and generate visual imagery.

Official newspapers were probably glad not to have to second-guess censors'

concerns about that kind of imagery.

It also provides satellite imagery and topographical details.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, digital satellite imagery could inspire

tomes' worth of new environmental policies.

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Matching Quote

"We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind—mass merchandising, advertising, politics conducted as a branch of advertising, the instant translation of science and technology into popular imagery, the increasing blurring and intermingling of identities within the realm of consumer goods, the preempting of any free or original imaginative response to experience by the television screen. We live inside an enormous novel. For the writer in particular it is less and less necessary for him to invent the fictional content of his novel. The fiction is already there. The writer's task is to invent the reality."

-J.G. Ballard