Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

imagination

[ih-maj-uh-ney-shuh n]
See more synonyms for imagination on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the faculty of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses.
  2. the action or process of forming such images or concepts.
  3. the faculty of producing ideal creations consistent with reality, as in literature, as distinct from the power of creating illustrative or decorative imagery.Compare fancy(def 2).
  4. the product of imagining; a conception or mental creation, often a baseless or fanciful one.
  5. ability to face and resolve difficulties; resourcefulness: a job that requires imagination.
  6. Psychology. the power of reproducing images stored in the memory under the suggestion of associated images (reproductive imagination) or of recombining former experiences in the creation of new images directed at a specific goal or aiding in the solution of problems (creative imagination).
  7. (in Kantian epistemology) synthesis of data from the sensory manifold into objects by means of the categories.
  8. Archaic. a plan, scheme, or plot.
Show More

Origin of imagination

1300–50; Middle English < Latin imāginātiōn- (stem of imāginātiō) fancy, equivalent to imāgināt(us) past participle of imāginārī to imagine (imāgin-, stem of imāgō image + -ātus -ate1) + -iōn- -ion
Related formsi·mag·i·na·tion·al, adjectivenon·im·ag·i·na·tion·al, adjective

Synonyms

See more synonyms for imagination on Thesaurus.com
3. See fancy. 5. ingenuity, enterprise, thought.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for imagination

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Moreover, I believe, dearest Eudora, that half your wrongs are in your own imagination.

    Philothea

    Lydia Maria Child

  • They are barren, till the imagination has tenanted them with possibilities of danger and dismay.

    Malbone

    Thomas Wentworth Higginson

  • The miseries of Tasso arose not only from the imagination and the heart.

  • Hitherto he had heard their voices in the dimness of imagination.

    Viviette

    William J. Locke

  • However, I am going to give my imagination rein, and string some rhymes about them.

    Ballads of a Bohemian

    Robert W. Service

British Dictionary definitions for imagination

imagination

noun
  1. the faculty or action of producing ideas, esp mental images of what is not present or has not been experienced
  2. mental creative ability
  3. the ability to deal resourcefully with unexpected or unusual problems, circumstances, etc
  4. (in romantic literary criticism, esp that of S. T. Coleridge) a creative act of perception that joins passive and active elements in thinking and imposes unity on the poetic materialCompare fancy (def. 9)
Show More
Derived Formsimaginational, adjective
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

Word Origin and History for imagination

n.

"faculty of the mind which forms and manipulates images," mid-14c., ymaginacion, from Old French imaginacion "concept, mental picture; hallucination," from Latin imaginationem (nominative imaginatio) "imagination, a fancy," noun of action from past participle stem of imaginari (see imagine).

Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Idioms and Phrases with imagination

imagination

see figment of one's imagination.

Show More
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.