imagine

American  

[ih-maj-in] / ɪˈmædʒ ɪn /

verb (used with object)

imagines, present (3rd person singular) imagined, past participle, past imagining present participle

1. to form a mental image of (something not actually present to the senses).

   Synonyms:

   picture, image

2. to think, believe, or fancy.

   He imagined the house was haunted.

3. to assume; suppose.

   I imagine they'll be here soon.

4. to conjecture; guess.

   I cannot imagine what you mean.

5. Archaic. to plan, scheme, or plot.

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verb (used without object)

imagines, present (3rd person singular) imagined, past participle, past imagining present participle

1. to form mental images of things not present to the senses; use the imagination.

2. to suppose; think; conjecture.

imagine British  

/ ɪˈmædʒɪn /

verb

1. (when tr, may take a clause as object) to form a mental image of

2. (when tr, may take a clause as object) to think, believe, or guess

3. (tr; takes a clause as object) to suppose; assume

   I imagine he'll come

4. (tr; takes a clause as object) to believe or assume without foundation

   he imagines he knows the whole story

5. an archaic word for plot 1

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1. Also: imagine that!.  an exclamation of surprise

Usage

What does imagine mean? To imagine is to form a mental likeness of something or someone not present, as in Imagine flying in a rocket to Mars. To imagine also means to think of something, especially in a way that it is not currently, as in Imagine what the house might look like after all these years. To imagine is also to assume, as in Oh dear, the teacher imagined that we all did our homework. Finally, to imagine can mean to guess, as in Can you imagine what it would be like for it to snow in the summer?Example: I can’t imagine they will take much longer, so we should just wait here.

Synonym Usage

Imagine, conceive, conceive of, realize refer to bringing something before the mind. To imagine is, literally, to form a mental image of something: to imagine yourself in London. To conceive is to form something by using one's imagination: How has the author conceived the first act of his play? To conceive of is to comprehend through the intellect something not perceived through the senses: Wilson conceived of a world free from war. To realize is to make an imagined thing real or concrete to oneself, to grasp fully its implications: to realize the extent of one's folly.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• imaginer
  noun
• preimagine
  verb (used with object)
• reimagine
  verb (used with object)
• imaginable
  adjective
• unimagined
  adjective
• well-imagined
  adjective
• imaginably
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• imagining
  present
• imagined
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• imagine
  simple
• imagines
  simple
• have imagined
  perfect
• has imagined
  perfect
• am imagining
  progressive
• are imagining
  progressive
• is imagining
  progressive
• have been imagining
  perfect progressive
• has been imagining
  perfect progressive

Past

• imagined
  simple
• had imagined
  perfect
• was imagining
  progressive
• were imagining
  progressive
• had been imagining
  perfect progressive

Future

• will imagine
  simple
• will have imagined
  perfect
• will be imagining
  progressive
• will have been imagining
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of imagine

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English imaginen from Middle French imaginer from Latin imāginārī, equivalent to imāgin- (stem of imāgō ) image + -ā- thematic vowel + -rī infinitive ending

Explanation

To imagine something is to picture it in your head. When we imagine things, we're using our imagination. The word image is a good clue to the meaning of imagine, a word for picturing or envisioning things. You could imagine you're a king, an astronaut, a firefighter, or a coyote. You could imagine the earth getting hit by an asteroid. If you can think of it, you can imagine it. Sometimes, imagining means believing or guessing. For example, your teacher could say, "Did you really imagine there would be no homework?"

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

imagine imagines imagined imagining

He told Christopher that his father’s death felt like a big mix-up, and that sometimes he would look down the street and imagine him walking home.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

One can therefore imagine how the odds are stacked against an international player like Traore.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

The scale of these eruptions can be difficult to imagine.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026

Some tried to imagine a dialogue between the man and woman in the picture.

From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026

But I couldn’t imagine he would pass up the chance to showcase Anna May.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

Valery Zaluzhnyi, who was removed as army chief in 2024, predicted that Drapatyi would "have a very difficult time. Much harder than he imagines".

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

"The new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will have a very difficult time. Much harder than he imagines," former army chief Valery Zaluzhny -- removed in 2024 -- said.

From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026

On the nostalgic piano ballad “Good Morning,” he imagines what it might be like to settle down somewhere “with a dog and a wife.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026

“Neuromancer,” one of the defining cyberpunk novels, was published in 1988; that book imagines an interconnected, virtual reality world you can traverse by “jacking in.”

From Salon ● Jun. 8, 2026

“Yes, but a smaller one than he imagines, for a smaller service. Which of these lands will you consent to part with?”

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

In 2024, Rushdie published a memoir recounting the near-death experience called "Knife," in which he has an imagined conversation with Matar.

From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026

Armed with flashlights, dozens of community members stepped into the darkened Westlake Theatre, sidestepping puddles and broken glass as they imagined what the century-old movie palace could become.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026

That work now includes techniques that could never have been imagined when the Victorian experiment began.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

Instead, the Backrooms provide a collectively imagined and online environment of unease, abandonment and liminality.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026

Danny imagined that Pili was in front of him.

From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova

The sloppy joe at Town Hall Delicatessen in South Orange, N.J., isn’t the textbook version you’re probably imagining.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

Until large language models came along, AI could not help with decisions like whether to buy Nvidia or SpaceX, since those require thinking through uncertainty and imagining future scenarios.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026

Instead of beginning with today's technology, the workshop summary starts by imagining what a habitable Mars might eventually look like and then works backward to identify the steps needed to get there.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026

While imagining scenarios, he came up with an arresting image for the Trojan horse, “listing over in the sand” in a way that intentionally echoes the Statue of Liberty in “Planet of the Apes.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026

Maybe I’m imagining things—a day like today would make anybody paranoid.

From "Linked" by Gordon Korman