envision
Americanverb (used with object)
-
envisions,
present (3rd person singular)
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envisioned,
past participle, past
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envisioning
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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envisionsimple
-
envisionssimple
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have envisionedperfect
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has envisionedperfect
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am envisioningprogressive
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are envisioningprogressive
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is envisioningprogressive
-
have been envisioningperfect progressive
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has been envisioningperfect progressive
Past
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envisionedsimple
-
had envisionedperfect
-
was envisioningprogressive
-
were envisioningprogressive
-
had been envisioningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of envision
Compare meaning
How does envision compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
The verb envision means to imagine or picture. Kids often envision themselves doing exciting things when they grow up, like being movie stars, professional athletes, or astronauts. The word envision comes from the Latin en-, which means "cause to be," and visionem, meaning "a thing seen." Career paths aren't the only things that can be envisioned. If you envision a cleaner world, you may volunteer to pick up trash on the beach. If you envision a more peaceful world, you might make your brother and sister play in separate rooms to stop them from screaming at each other.
Vocabulary lists containing envision
"The Hill We Climb," by Amanda Gorman
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"'Blaxicans' and Other Reinvented Americans," Vocabulary from the argument
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"Earth and Space"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
She loved the ceremony but didn’t envision it for herself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
In interviews, McClain Delaney said she regretted the vote and that at the time, she didn’t envision the Trump administration carrying out its mass deportation promises.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
Could he envision a future where he was a major player in the party?
From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2026
"I could not envision what it would've unleashed," she says.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026
When I move my fingers, they wriggle and I momentarily envision them detaching and crawling away.
From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung
He envisions a massive deployment of measures that are already in use, such as ocean-water desalination and aquifer replenishment, underpinned by federal incentives for reducing consumption.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
This time will be different, the council hopes, as it envisions a subscription-based model whereby vendors pay a fee to access batteries and charging stations.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
It’s worth asking whom she envisions as her audience.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
She also envisions working with weather apps so that beachgoers can eventually receive a geo-fenced bluff collapse warning, in the same way a high surf advisory might be issued.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
He envisions her running her cane along the runnels.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Elon Musk envisioned data centers floating through space.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Yet had Beijing followed through on the financial liberalization envisioned in the WTO agreement, the housing market might not have grown so distended or the balance sheets of local governments so precarious.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
The obvious adjustment is to increase the maximum to cover about 90% of earnings, as envisioned in the 1983 legislation.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
The document envisioned some role for Iran in overseeing shipping in Hormuz.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Or perhaps they will merely pick up and leave for Mars or Europa or Titan or, at last, as Robert Goddard envisioned, seek out an uninhabited planet in some young and promising planetary system.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Going in, I didn’t know what to expect, but I wasn’t automatically envisioning a late-career “job apocalypse.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
To his mother’s delight, he decided he wanted to be a doctor at age 4, after envisioning the doctor who treated his broken arm in Jersey City Hospital as “an angel.”
From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026
Boeing has big plans for the North Line, envisioning a production cadence comparable to that in Renton, 35 miles to the south, which until this week was the exclusive home of MAX assembly.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
Now Lakhani is pushing for more AI in the product experience itself, envisioning an experience where AI suggests analytics to explore and delivers insights based on a broad set of data.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
He's probably running inventory of who I could be with, envisioning a few of us here, a scrappy team of orphans and outcasts.
From "We Are Okay" by Nina LaCour
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
