imagination
the action or process of forming such images or concepts.
the faculty of producing ideal creations consistent with reality, as in literature, as distinct from the power of creating illustrative or decorative imagery. : Compare fancy (def. 9).
the product of imagining a conception or mental creation, often a baseless or fanciful one.
ability to face and resolve difficulties; resourcefulness: a job that requires imagination.
Psychology. the power of reproducing images stored in the memory under the suggestion of associated images (reproductive imagination ) or of recombining former experiences in the creation of new images directed at a specific goal or aiding in the solution of problems (creative imagination ).
(in Kantian epistemology) synthesis of data from the sensory manifold into objects by means of the categories.
Archaic. a plan, scheme, or plot.
Origin of imagination
1synonym study For imagination
Other words for imagination
Other words from imagination
- i·mag·i·na·tion·al, adjective
- non·im·ag·i·na·tion·al, adjective
Words Nearby imagination
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use imagination in a sentence
It takes us as finite beings and gives us almost infinite capacity to create new worlds of imagination.
Talking Is Throwing Fictional Worlds at One Another - Issue 89: The Dark Side | Kevin Berger | September 9, 2020 | NautilusThe process of decolonizing one’s imagination is the first step to envisioning a future where pleasures are more evenly distributed than was the case in our past.
Solarpunk Is Growing a Gorgeous New World in the Cracks of the Old One | Carin Ism | September 6, 2020 | Singularity HubNow, with a little imagination, there are days where I can embrace it as a New Age-y sweat-based regimen among the skittering rodents.
People, he says, are too limited by their own experience and imaginations.
They have little imagination about how to engage in social change, and even less imagination about the alternative world they would build if they could.
Generation Z is ‘traumatized’ by climate change—and they’re the key to fighting it | matthewheimer | August 19, 2020 | Fortune
Does each character have one in real life that inspired it, or are they from your imagination?
She found instead a show of imagination, artistry, and above all, really happy people—and she quickly fell in love.
A Backstage Love Affair With Cirque du Soleil | Allison McNearney | December 1, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThis little nook is the perfect spot for some quiet reading time or to let your imagination run wild.
The Daily Beast’s 2014 Holiday Gift Guide: For the Blue Ivy in Your Life | Allison McNearney | November 29, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTSo after that initial inspiration, my imagination created the rest.
Today, Turkey in the German imagination has mostly to do with immigration, assimilation, and EU membership.
The 20th-Century Dictator Most Idolized by Hitler | William O’Connor | November 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTDistance, the uncertain light, and imagination, magnified it to a high wall; high as the wall of China.
The Giant of the North | R.M. BallantyneI could have sworn I heard a cry, and one of my men spoke in a tone that assured me my imagination had not been playing a trick.
Raw Gold | Bertrand W. SinclairIt was when the face and figure of a great tragedian began to haunt her imagination and stir her senses.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories | Kate ChopinHow much of the imagination, how much of the intellect, evaporates and is lost while we seek to embody it in words!
Pearls of Thought | Maturin M. BallouWhen she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories | Kate Chopin
British Dictionary definitions for imagination
/ (ɪˌmædʒɪˈneɪʃən) /
the faculty or action of producing ideas, esp mental images of what is not present or has not been experienced
mental creative ability
the ability to deal resourcefully with unexpected or unusual problems, circumstances, etc
(in romantic literary criticism, esp that of S. T. Coleridge) a creative act of perception that joins passive and active elements in thinking and imposes unity on the poetic material: Compare fancy (def. 9)
Derived forms of imagination
- imaginational, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with imagination
see figment of one's imagination.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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