imagine

American  

[ih-maj-in] / ɪˈmædʒ ɪn /

verb (used with object)

• imagines,
  present (3rd person singular)
• imagined,
  past participle,  past
• imagining
  present participle

1. to form a mental image of (something not actually present to the senses).

   Synonyms:

   picture, image

2. to think, believe, or fancy.

   He imagined the house was haunted.

3. to assume; suppose.

   I imagine they'll be here soon.

4. to conjecture; guess.

   I cannot imagine what you mean.

5. Archaic. to plan, scheme, or plot.

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verb (used without object)

• imagines,
  present (3rd person singular)
• imagined,
  past participle,  past
• imagining
  present participle

1. to form mental images of things not present to the senses; use the imagination.

2. to suppose; think; conjecture.

imagine British  

/ ɪˈmædʒɪn /

verb

1. (when tr, may take a clause as object) to form a mental image of

2. (when tr, may take a clause as object) to think, believe, or guess

3. (tr; takes a clause as object) to suppose; assume

   I imagine he'll come

4. (tr; takes a clause as object) to believe or assume without foundation

   he imagines he knows the whole story

5. an archaic word for plot 1

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1. Also: imagine that!.  an exclamation of surprise

Usage

What does imagine mean? To imagine is to form a mental likeness of something or someone not present, as in Imagine flying in a rocket to Mars. To imagine also means to think of something, especially in a way that it is not currently, as in Imagine what the house might look like after all these years. To imagine is also to assume, as in Oh dear, the teacher imagined that we all did our homework. Finally, to imagine can mean to guess, as in Can you imagine what it would be like for it to snow in the summer?Example: I can’t imagine they will take much longer, so we should just wait here.

Synonym Usage

Imagine, conceive, conceive of, realize refer to bringing something before the mind. To imagine is, literally, to form a mental image of something: to imagine yourself in London. To conceive is to form something by using one's imagination: How has the author conceived the first act of his play? To conceive of is to comprehend through the intellect something not perceived through the senses: Wilson conceived of a world free from war. To realize is to make an imagined thing real or concrete to oneself, to grasp fully its implications: to realize the extent of one's folly.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• imaginer
  noun
• preimagine
  verb (used with object)
• reimagine
  verb (used with object)
• imaginable
  adjective
• unimagined
  adjective
• well-imagined
  adjective
• imaginably
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• imagining
  present
• imagined
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• imagine
  simple
• imagines
  simple
• have imagined
  perfect
• has imagined
  perfect
• am imagining
  progressive
• are imagining
  progressive
• is imagining
  progressive
• have been imagining
  perfect progressive
• has been imagining
  perfect progressive

Past

• imagined
  simple
• had imagined
  perfect
• was imagining
  progressive
• were imagining
  progressive
• had been imagining
  perfect progressive

Future

• will imagine
  simple
• will have imagined
  perfect
• will be imagining
  progressive
• will have been imagining
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of imagine

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English imaginen from Middle French imaginer from Latin imāginārī, equivalent to imāgin- (stem of imāgō ) image + -ā- thematic vowel + -rī infinitive ending

Explanation

To imagine something is to picture it in your head. When we imagine things, we're using our imagination. The word image is a good clue to the meaning of imagine, a word for picturing or envisioning things. You could imagine you're a king, an astronaut, a firefighter, or a coyote. You could imagine the earth getting hit by an asteroid. If you can think of it, you can imagine it. Sometimes, imagining means believing or guessing. For example, your teacher could say, "Did you really imagine there would be no homework?"

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

imagine imagines imagined imagining

And they broker all sorts of meetings for us in the writers room with experts from every aspect of the healthcare spectrum you can imagine.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

Yet wind back 18 years and Smalling did not imagine he was destined to come anywhere near as far as he has.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

We can imagine that his wife, Penelope, would have asked him about that particular time.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026

Now imagine you’re a stock or commodities trader who relies on high-speed deals to make a living.

From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2026

We will just have to imagine the picnic, that’s all.

From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo

One imagines Mike Rogers has enjoyed a lovely Michigan summer.

From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026

Jeselnik, 47, imagines his comedy career is winding down.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026

Joshua Kushner and his family, one imagines, will not starve.

From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026

One imagines irritated Michigan Wolverines burning checkbooks and disavowing money-market accounts as they drink their spritzes at Ann Arbor tailgates—but inside Columbus, this is like getting to sponsor religion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

Marie-Laure sits at the square table, a plate of cookies in front of her, and imagines the old women with veiny hands and milky eyes and oversize ears.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

June hopes her SpaceX shares will eventually turn out to be like the Apple stock certificate hanging over her desk—worth much more than she ever could have imagined two decades ago.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

“I never imagined a product sold to me as ‘safe and easy’ would do this to me in my own home,” Trevino said in the written statement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

She describes herself as an extrovert and says she now has opportunities she never imagined growing up in Afghanistan.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

Amazon.com just delivered against high expectations for its cloud business — perhaps even more than the bulls could have imagined.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026

I imagined I could see the trolls in The Eastern Woods, slurping sludge and maybe eating apples.

From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff

Until large language models came along, AI could not help with decisions like whether to buy Nvidia or SpaceX, since those require thinking through uncertainty and imagining future scenarios.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026

Instead of beginning with today's technology, the workshop summary starts by imagining what a habitable Mars might eventually look like and then works backward to identify the steps needed to get there.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026

While imagining scenarios, he came up with an arresting image for the Trojan horse, “listing over in the sand” in a way that intentionally echoes the Statue of Liberty in “Planet of the Apes.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026

Last year a Dreamer variant worked out how to collect diamonds, external in the video game Minecraft, by imagining future scenarios to help it with decision making.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

The Germans were shocked, never imagining that British bombs could reach them.

From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti