imagery

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

noun

plural

imageries 

1. the formation of mental images, figures, or likenesses of things, or of such images collectively.

   the dim imagery of a dream.

2. pictorial images, as in works of art.

3. the use of rhetorical images.

4. figurative description or illustration; rhetorical images collectively.

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

imagery

/ ˈɪmɪdʒrɪ, -dʒərɪ /

noun

1. figurative or descriptive language in a literary work

2. images collectively

3. psychol

   1. the materials or general processes of the imagination

   2. the characteristic kind of mental images formed by a particular individual See also image imagination

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

imagery

1. 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.”

Other Word Forms

• imagerial adjective
• imagerially adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of imagery¹

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English imagerie, from Old French, equivalent to image + -ery

Example Sentences

It is the Democratic primary, and those voters do not live where his campaign imagery is set.

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Not just stock prices but weather patterns, shipping rates, political polls, satellite imagery.

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Piles of bodies on the ground and blood-stained earth are visible from space in satellite imagery.

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BBC Verify's visual analysis of satellite imagery has found that the destruction of buildings in Gaza by the Israeli military has been continuing on a huge scale.

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Child safety experts and organisations have frequently warned AI tools developed, in part, using huge volumes of wide-ranging online content are being used to create highly realistic abuse imagery of children or non-consenting adults.

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Related Words

• symbolism