imagery

[ im-ij-ree, im-i-juh-ree ]

/ ˈɪm ɪdʒ ri, ˈɪm ɪ dʒə ri /

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See synonyms for imagery on Thesaurus.com

noun, plural im·age·ries.

the formation of mental images, figures, or likenesses of things, or of such images collectively: the dim imagery of a dream.

pictorial images, as in works of art.

the use of rhetorical images.

figurative description or illustration; rhetorical images collectively.

Psychology. mental images collectively, especially those produced by the action of imagination.

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Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

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In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

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Origin of imagery

1275–1325; Middle English imagerie<Old French. See image, -ery

OTHER WORDS FROM imagery

im·a·ge·ri·al

[im-uh-jeer-ee-uhl], /ˌɪm əˈdʒɪər i əl/, adjectiveim·a·ge·ri·al·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use imagery in a sentence

The poet was in Arcadia, Phillis was a shepherdess, and the conventional imageries of the pastoral valley were the environment.
Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles|Thomas Lodge and Giles Fletcher
It was a fitting end to a life of crime and drug-brought imageries.
Whispering Wires|Henry Leverage
He revels indeed in "orgiac imageries," and revelry implies excess.
Selected Poems of Francis Thompson|Francis Thompson
On this theme she chanted long and lovingly and a hundred coloured, senescent imageries leaped from the song.
Nights in London|Thomas Burke

There are some scores of ruba'iyat that may be said to have contributed their imageries to the quatrain.
The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam|Omar Khayyam

British Dictionary definitions for imagery

imagery

/ (ˈɪmɪdʒrɪ, -dʒərɪ) /

noun plural -ries

figurative or descriptive language in a literary work

images collectively

psychol

the materials or general processes of the imagination
the characteristic kind of mental images formed by a particular individualSee also image (def. 7), imagination (def. 1)

military the presentation of objects reproduced photographically (by infrared or electronic means) as prints or electronic displays

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

Cultural definitions for imagery

imagery

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.”

imagery

Origin of imagery

OTHER WORDS FROM imagery

Words related to imagery

How to use imagery in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for imagery

Cultural definitions for imagery