imago

American  

[ih-mey-goh, ih-mah-] / ɪˈmeɪ goʊ, ɪˈmɑ- /

noun

plural

imagoes, imagines

1. Entomology. an adult insect.

2. Psychoanalysis. an idealized concept of a loved one, formed in childhood and retained unaltered in adult life.

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imago British  

/ ɪˈmeɪɡəʊ /

noun

1. an adult sexually mature insect produced after metamorphosis

2. psychoanal an idealized image of another person, usually a parent, acquired in childhood and carried in the unconscious in later life

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imago Scientific  

/ ĭ-mā′gō /

plural

imagoes

1. An insect in its sexually mature adult stage after metamorphosis.

2. Compare larva nymph pupa

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Etymology

Origin of imago

1790–1800; < New Latin, Latin imāgō; image

Example Sentences

The chord progression and clattery percussion on “Dead Women” evoke “Lay Lady Lay,” while Mitski’s song imagines someone pawing through her things after death, trying to uncover her secrets.

From The Wall Street Journal

Citrini imagines a world where nearly every line of code is written by AI, and products or features that once took thousands of engineers months to build can now be spun up in hours.

From The Wall Street Journal

The boy imagines “a wild white stallion” and misses his dad.

From The Wall Street Journal

For Dalio, geopolitical trends indicate “a clash of great powers” is looming and in the scenario he imagines, investors should “sell out of all debt and buy gold.”

From MarketWatch

“It’s not just purely in your mind,” said O’Brien, who imagines the course through her eyes as opposed to a top-down view or something else that a video game might offer.

From Los Angeles Times