imaginary
Americanadjective
noun
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imaginaries
plural
adjective
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existing in the imagination; unreal; illusory
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maths involving or containing imaginary numbers. The imaginary part of a complex number, z, is usually written Im z
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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imaginarinessnoun
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nonimaginarilynessnoun
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nonimaginarinessnoun
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nonimaginaryadjective
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preimaginaryadjective
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unimaginaryadjective
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imaginarilyadverb
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nonimaginarilyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of imaginary
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin imāginārius, equivalent to imāgin-, (stem of imāgō ) image + -ārius -ary
Explanation
Anything imaginary is not real: it only exists in someone's head. We hate to ruin your day, but unicorns are imaginary. Our imagination allows us to think of anything we want, and things that only exist in our minds are imaginary. Many children have imaginary friends: people they talk to who aren't real. Mythological beings like dragons, Zeus, and Thor are imaginary. A fantasy about marrying a movie star is probably imaginary, because that isn't likely to happen.
Vocabulary lists containing imaginary
List 1
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Common Core Grade 6, List 4
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Common Core Grade 5, List 4
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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:
The Tibetan culture on display in Shangri-La is mostly “an imaginary view of Tibet.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
Children who scored high on the creativity test, however, produced imaginary stores no more creative than children who scored lower.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
Seeing Simeone wave an imaginary yellow card when he wanted a second booking for his compatriot just before half-time told a story in itself.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
So in the imaginary universe where this scenario plays out, aren’t we’re talking about 60 states or so?
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
According to the adults, Josie basically was an imaginary friend.
From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
“We have to, as artists, find the courage to disrupt convention, practice the spreading of hope and cultivate new stories and imaginaries that challenge divisive binaries.”
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 24, 2023
“I love how he weaves in the African oceanic imaginaries, the long durée of African historical inter-relationships with the world, and with itself,” Owuor added.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 18, 2021
Of the world surrounding him which refused definitions he said, "because there is no image there is nothing except imaginaries."
From Gilbert Keith Chesterton by Maisie Ward
The theorem is here referred to partly on account of its bearing on the theory of imaginaries in geometry.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 8 "Cube" to "Daguerre, Louis" by Various
Hence, an easy method for the representation of such imaginaries is based on the principle of analytic geometry and a system of co-ordinates.
From Creative Intelligence Essays in the Pragmatic Attitude by Boyd H. Bode
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.
