imago
Americannoun
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Entomology. an adult insect.
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Psychoanalysis. an idealized concept of a loved one, formed in childhood and retained unaltered in adult life.
noun
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an adult sexually mature insect produced after metamorphosis
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psychoanal an idealized image of another person, usually a parent, acquired in childhood and carried in the unconscious in later life
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of imago
1790–1800; < New Latin, Latin imāgō; see image
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:
We are the imago Dei; we are made in the image of God.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 11, 2023
In the Butterfly Garden, I read about metamorphosis, from egg to imago.
From New York Times ● Dec. 2, 2019
It explores various interpretations of the Eucharist, human origins and the concept of imago Dei.
From New York Times ● Oct. 13, 2016
In fact, most versions of the tradition considered the two bodies equally authentic: the effigy or imago was looked on as an emanation of the once-living body rather than its representation.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 23, 2010
It’s hard for me to imagine myself as a grown-up, one of those imago things.
From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper
If “The Inheritors” traces the birth of our kind of consciousness, “Pincher Martin” imagines its last stand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● 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
“Wuthering Heights” looks just as the voracious reader imagines it as they tear through the novel: drafty houses, windy moors, color and texture that bound from the screen.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026
He imagines her puttering around the apartment, drawing a bath, pouring herself a glass of wine, her bags in the hallway.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
After bugs go through metamorphosis, they are called imagoes.
From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper
In the case of the leaf-miners and leaf-tiers, little difficulty is experienced in rearing the imagoes.
From Directions for Collecting and Preserving Insects by Riley, C. V.
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.
