Meaning of the word imagination

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Imagination is the production or simulation of novel objects, sensations, and ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses. Stefan Szczelkun characterises it as the forming of experiences in one’s mind, which can be re-creations of past experiences, such as vivid memories with imagined changes, or completely invented and possibly fantastic scenes.[1] Imagination helps make knowledge applicable in solving problems and is fundamental to integrating experience and the learning process.[2][3][4][5] As an approach to build theory, it is called «disciplined imagination».[6] A basic training for imagination is listening to storytelling (narrative),[2][7] in which the exactness of the chosen words is the fundamental factor to «evoke worlds».[8]

One view of imagination links it with cognition,[9][10][11]
seeing imagination as a cognitive process used in mental functioning. It is increasingly used — in the form of visual imagery — by clinicians in psychological treatment.[12]
Imaginative thought may — speculatively — become associated with rational thought on the assumption that both activities may involve cognitive processes that may «underpin thinking about possibilities».[13]
The cognate term, «mental imagery» may be used in psychology for denoting the process of reviving in the mind recollections of objects formerly given in sense perception. Since this use of the term conflicts with that of ordinary language, some psychologists have preferred to describe this process as «imaging» or «imagery» or to speak of it as «reproductive» as opposed to «productive» or «constructive» imagination. Constructive imagination is further divided into voluntary imagination driven by the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) and involuntary imagination (LPFC-independent), such as REM-sleep dreaming, daydreaming, hallucinations, and spontaneous insight.[14] The voluntary types of imagination include integration of modifiers, and mental rotation. Imagined images, both novel and recalled, are seen with the «mind’s eye».

Imagination, however, is not considered to be exclusively a cognitive activity because it is also linked to the body and place, particularly that it also involves setting up relationships with materials and people, precluding the sense that imagination is locked away in the head.[15]

Imagination can also be expressed through stories such as fairy tales or fantasies. Children often use such narratives and pretend play in order to exercise their imaginations. When children develop fantasy they play at two levels: first, they use role playing to act out what they have developed with their imagination, and at the second level they play again with their make-believe situation by acting as if what they have developed is an actual reality.[16]

History[edit]

Imaginatio is the standard Latin translation of the Greek term phantasia.[17] Aristotle in On the Soul considered phantasia (imagination) as the capacity for making mental images, and distinguished it from perception and from thinking. He held however that thought was always accompanied by an image.[18]

The notion of a «mind’s eye» goes back at least to Cicero’s reference to mentis oculi during his discussion of the orator’s appropriate use of simile.[19]

In this discussion, Cicero observed that allusions to «the Syrtis of his patrimony» and «the Charybdis of his possessions» involved similes that were «too far-fetched»; and he advised the orator to, instead, just speak of «the rock» and «the gulf» (respectively) — on the grounds that «the eyes of the mind are more easily directed to those objects which we have seen, than to those which we have only heard».[20]

In medieval faculty psychology, the imagination was one of the inward wits along with memory and the sensus communis. It allowed the recombination of images, for example by combining perceptions of gold and mountain to obtain the idea of a golden mountain.[21][22]

The concept of «mind’s eye» appeared in English in Chaucer’s (c.1387) Man of Law’s Tale in his Canterbury Tales, where he tells us that one of the three men dwelling in a castle was blind, and could only see with «the eyes of his mind»; namely, those eyes «with which all men see after they have become blind».[23]

Galileo used the imagination to conduct thought experiments, such as asking readers to imagine what direction a stone released from a sling would fly.[24]

Description[edit]

The common use of the term is for the process of forming new images in the mind that have not been previously experienced with the help of what has been seen, heard, or felt before, or at least only partially or in different combinations. This could also be involved with thinking out possible or impossible outcomes of something or someone in life’s abundant situations and experiences. Some typical examples follow:

  • Fairy tale
  • Fiction
  • A form of verisimilitude often invoked in fantasy and science fiction invites readers to pretend such stories are true by referring to objects of the mind such as fictional books or years that do not exist apart from an imaginary world.

Imagination, not being limited to the acquisition of exact knowledge by the requirements of practical necessity is largely free from objective restraints. The ability to imagine one’s self in another person’s place is very important to social relations and understanding. Albert Einstein said, «Imagination … is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.»[25]

The same limitations beset imagination in the field of scientific hypothesis. Progress in scientific research is due largely to provisional explanations which are developed by imagination, but such hypotheses must be framed in relation to previously ascertained facts and in accordance with the principles of the particular science.

Imagination is an experimental partition of the mind used to develop theories and ideas based on functions. Taking objects from real perceptions, the imagination uses complex If-functions that involve both Semantic and Episodic memory to develop new or revised ideas.[26] This part of the mind is vital to developing better and easier ways to accomplish old and new tasks. In sociology, Imagination is used to part ways with reality and have an understanding of social interactions derived from a perspective outside of society itself. This leads to the development of theories through questions that wouldn’t usually be asked. These experimental ideas can be safely conducted inside a virtual world and then, if the idea is probable and the function is true, the idea can be actualized in reality. Imagination is the key to new development of the mind and can be shared with others, progressing collectively.

Regarding the volunteer effort, imagination can be classified as:

  • involuntary (the dream from the sleep, the daydream)
  • voluntary (the reproductive imagination, the creative imagination, the dream of perspective)

Psychology[edit]

Psychologists have studied imaginative thought, not only in its exotic form of creativity and artistic expression but also in its mundane form of everyday imagination.[27] Ruth M.J. Byrne has proposed that everyday imaginative thoughts about counterfactual alternatives to reality may be based on the same cognitive processes on which rational thoughts are also based.[28] Children can engage in the creation of imaginative alternatives to reality from their very early years.[29] Cultural psychology is currently elaborating a view of imagination as a higher mental function involved in a number of everyday activities both at the individual and collective level[30] that enables people to manipulate complex meanings of both linguistic and iconic forms in the process of experiencing.

The phenomenology of imagination is discussed In The Imaginary: A Phenomenological Psychology of the Imagination (French: L’Imaginaire: Psychologie phénoménologique de l’imagination), also published under the title The Psychology of the Imagination, a 1940 book by Jean-Paul Sartre, in which he propounds his concept of the imagination and discusses what the existence of imagination shows about the nature of human consciousness.[31]

The imagination is also active in our perception of photographic images in order to make them appear real.[32]

Memory[edit]

Memory and mental imagery, often seen as a part of the process of imagination, have been shown to be affected by one another.[33] «Images made by functional magnetic resonance imaging technology show that remembering and imagining sends blood to identify parts of the brain.»[33] Various psychological factors can influence the mental processing of the brain and heighten its chance to retain information as either long-term memories or short-term memories. John Sweller indicated that experiences stored as long-term memories are easier to recall, as they are ingrained deeper in the mind. Each of these forms require information to be taught in a specific manner so as to use various regions of the brain when being processed.[34] This information can potentially help develop programs for young students to cultivate or further enhance their creative abilities from a young age. The neocortex and thalamus are responsible for controlling the brain’s imagination, along with many of the brain’s other functions such as consciousness and abstract thought.[citation needed] Since imagination involves many different brain functions, such as emotions, memory, thoughts, etc., portions of the brain where multiple functions occur—such as the thalamus and neocortex—are the main regions where imaginative processing has been documented.[35] The understanding of how memory and imagination are linked in the brain, paves the way to better understand one’s ability to link significant past experiences with their imagination.

Perception[edit]

Piaget posited that perceptions depend on the world view of a person. The world view is the result of arranging perceptions into existing imagery by imagination. Piaget cites the example of a child saying that the moon is following her when she walks around the village at night. Like this, perceptions are integrated into the world view to make sense. Imagination is needed to make sense of perceptions.[36]

Brain activation[edit]

A study using fMRI while subjects were asked to imagine precise visual figures, to mentally disassemble them, or mentally blend them, showed activity in the occipital, frontoparietal, posterior parietal, precuneus, and dorsolateral prefrontal regions of the subject’s brains.[37]

Evolution[edit]

Phylogenesis and ontogenesis of various components of imagination

Phylogenetic acquisition of imagination was a gradual process. The simplest form of imagination, REM-sleep dreaming, evolved in mammals with acquisition of REM sleep 140 million years ago.[38] Spontaneous insight improved in primates with acquisition of the lateral prefrontal cortex 70 million years ago. After hominins split from the chimpanzee line 6 million years ago they further improved their imagination. Prefrontal analysis was acquired 3.3 million years ago when hominins started to manufacture Mode One stone tools.[39] Progress in stone tools culture to Mode Two stone tools by 2 million years ago signify remarkable improvement of prefrontal analysis. The most advanced mechanism of imagination, prefrontal synthesis, was likely acquired by humans around 70,000 years ago and resulted in behavioral modernity.[40] This leap toward modern imagination has been characterized by paleoanthropologists as the «Cognitive revolution»,[41] «Upper Paleolithic Revolution»,[42] and the «Great Leap Forward».[43]

Moral imagination[edit]

Moral imagination usually describes the mental capacity to find answers to ethical questions and dilemmas through the process of a mental and intellectual imagination and visualization.

Different definitions of «moral imagination» can be found in the literature.[44]

One of the most prominent definitions was provided by the philosopher Mark Johnson: «An ability to imaginatively discern various possibilities for acting in a given situation and to envision the potential help and harm that are likely to result from a given action.»[45]

In an article recently published in the Journal of Management History, the authors argued that Hitler’s assassin Claus von Stauffenberg decided to dare to overthrow the Nazi regime in particular (among other factors) as a result of a process of «moral imagination.» His willingness to kill Hitler was less due to his compassion for his comrades, his family or friends living at that time (actual people living at that time), but originated rather from the fact that he was already thinking about the potential problems of later generations and people he did not know. In other words, through a process of “moral imagination” he developed empathy for «abstract» people (for examples, Germans of later generations, people who were not yet alive).[46]

See also[edit]

  • Artificial imagination
  • Body of light
  • Cognitive dissonance
  • Creative visualization
  • Creativity
  • Decatastrophizing
  • Exaggeration
  • Fantasy (psychology)
  • Fictional countries
  • Guided imagery
  • Imagery
  • The Imaginary (psychoanalysis)
  • Imaginary (sociology)
  • Imagination Age
  • Imagination inflation
  • Intuition (psychology)
  • Magic realism
  • Mental image
  • Mimesis
  • Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism
  • Sociological imagination
  • Truth
  • Tulpa
  • Verisimilitude

References[edit]

  1. ^ Szczelkun, Stefan (2018-03-03). SENSE THINK ACT: a collection of exercises to experience total human ability. Stefan Szczelkun. ISBN 9781870736107. To imagine is to form experiences in the mind. These can be recreations of past experiences as they happened such as vivid memories with imagined changes, or they can be completely invented and possibly fantastic scenes.
  2. ^ a b Norman 2000 pp. 1-2
  3. ^ Brian Sutton-Smith 1988, p. 22
  4. ^ Archibald MacLeish 1970, p. 887
  5. ^ Kieran Egan 1992, pp. 50
  6. ^ Gümüsay, Ali Aslan; Reinecke, Juliane (2022). «Researching for Desirable Futures: From Real Utopias to Imagining Alternatives». Journal of Management Studies. 59: 236–242. doi:10.1111/joms.12709. hdl:10419/241847. S2CID 233645071.
  7. ^ Northrop Frye 1963, p. 49
  8. ^ As noted by Giovanni Pascoli.
  9. ^
    Dierckxsens, Geoffrey (2019-10-10). «‘Making Sense of (Moral) Things’: Fallible Man in Relation to Enactivism». In Davidson, Scott (ed.). A Companion to Ricoeur’s Fallible Man. Studies in the Thought of Paul Ricoeur. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 104. ISBN 9781498587129. Retrieved 6 October 2022. Kant’s notion of imagination […] designates a cognitive capacity that is purely mental.
  10. ^
    Perlovsky, Leonid; Deming, Ross; Ilin, Roman (2011-08-28). Emotional Cognitive Neural Algorithms with Engineering Applications: Dynamic Logic: From Vague to Crisp. Volume 371 of Studies in Computational Intelligence. Berlin: Springer. p. 86. ISBN 9783642228308. Retrieved 6 October 2022. Imagination was long considered a part of thinking processes; Kant […] emphasized the role of imagination in the thought process, he called thinking ‘a play of cognitive functions of imagination and understanding,’ […].
  11. ^
    Compare:
    Efland, Arthur (2002-06-14). «Imagination in Cognition». Art and Cognition: Integrating the Visual Arts in the Curriculum. Language and Literacy Series. New York: Teachers College Press. p. 133. ISBN 9780807742181. Retrieved 6 October 2022. Like feelings and emotions, imagination is a prickly topic with a history of exclusion from the realm of the cognitive.
  12. ^
    Pearson, Joel (2020-06-18). «The Visual Imagination». In Abraham, Anna (ed.). The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination. Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 175. ISBN 9781108429245. Retrieved 12 October 2022. Visual imagery typically refers to the voluntary creation of the conscious visual experience of an object or scene in its absence (e.g. solely in the mind). […] imagery can play a core role in many anxiety disorders, depression, schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease, and is increasingly harnessed as a uniquely powerful tool for psychological treatment […].
  13. ^
    Byrne, Ruth M. J. (26 January 2007) [2005]. The Rational Imagination: How People Create Alternatives to Reality. A Bradford Book. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press (published 2007). p. 38. ISBN 9780262261845. Retrieved 29 September 2022. Rational thought and imaginative thought may be based on the same kinds of cognitive processes, processes that underpin thinking about possibilities.
  14. ^ Vyshedskiy, Andrey (2020). «Voluntary and Involuntary Imagination: Neurological Mechanisms, Developmental Path, Clinical Implications, and Evolutionary Trajectory». Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture. 4 (2): 1–18. doi:10.26613/esic.4.2.186. ISSN 2472-9884. JSTOR 10.26613/esic.4.2.186. S2CID 231912956.
  15. ^ Janowski, Dr Monica; Ingold, Professor Tim (2012-09-01). Imagining Landscapes: Past, Present and Future. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 9781409461449.
  16. ^ Laurence Goldman (1998). Child’s play: myth, mimesis and make-believe. Oxford New York: Berg Publishers. ISBN 978-1-85973-918-1. Basically what this means is that the children use their make-believe situation and act as if what they are acting out is from a reality that already exists even though they have made it up.imagination comes after story created.
  17. ^ Cf. Andreas Dorschel, ‘Phantasia: Epistemology into Music’, Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics 45 (2022), no. 4, pp. 18–29.
  18. ^ Shields, Christopher (2020). «Supplement to Aristotle’s Psychology: Imagination». Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 26 Oct 2021.
  19. ^ Cicero, De Oratore, Liber III: XLI: 163.
  20. ^ J.S. (trans. and ed.), Cicero on Oratory and Orators, Harper & Brothers, (New York), 1875: Book III, C.XLI, p.239.
  21. ^ Harvey, E Ruth (1975). The Inward Wits: Psychological Theory in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. London: Warburg Institute. ISBN 9780854810512.
  22. ^ Mahoney, Edward P (1982). «Sense, intellect, and imagination in Albert, Thomas, and Siger». In Kretzmann, N; Kenny, A; Pinborg, J; Stump, E (eds.). Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 602–622. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521226059.033. ISBN 9781139055154.
  23. ^ The Man of Laws Tale, lines 550-553.
  24. ^ Franklin, James (2000). «Diagrammatic reasoning and modelling in the imagination: the secret weapons of the Scientific Revolution» (PDF). In Freeland, G; Corones, A (eds.). 1543 and All That: Image and Word, Change and Continuity in the Proto-Scientific Revolution. Dordrecht: Kluwer. pp. 53–115. ISBN 9780792359135.
  25. ^ Viereck, George Sylvester (October 26, 1929). «What life means to Einstein: an interview». The Saturday Evening Post.
  26. ^ Devitt, Aleea L.; Addis, Donna Rose; Schacter, Daniel L. (2017-10-01). «Episodic and semantic content of memory and imagination: A multilevel analysis». Memory & Cognition. 45 (7): 1078–1094. doi:10.3758/s13421-017-0716-1. ISSN 1532-5946. PMC 5702280. PMID 28547677.
  27. ^ Ward, T.B., Smith, S.M, & Vaid, J. (1997). Creative thought. Washington DC: APA
  28. ^ Byrne, R.M.J. (2005). The Rational Imagination: How People Create Alternatives to Reality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  29. ^ Harris, P. (2000). The work of the imagination. London: Blackwell.
  30. ^ Tateo, L. (2015). Giambattista Vico and the psychological imagination. Culture and Psychology, vol. 21(2):145-161.
  31. ^ Sartre, Jean-Paul (1995). The psychology of imagination. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415119542. OCLC 34102867.
  32. ^ Wilson, John G. (2016-12-01). «Sartre and the Imagination: Top Shelf Magazines». Sexuality & Culture. 20 (4): 775–784. doi:10.1007/s12119-016-9358-x. ISSN 1095-5143. S2CID 148101276.
  33. ^ a b Long, Priscilla (2011). My Brain On My Mind. p. 27. ISBN 978-1612301365.
  34. ^ Leahy, Wayne; John Sweller (5 June 2007). «The Imagination Effect Increases with an Increased Intrinsic Cognitive Load». Applied Cognitive Psychology. 22 (2): 273–283. doi:10.1002/acp.1373.
  35. ^ «Welcome to ScienceForums.Net!».
  36. ^ Piaget, J. (1967). The child’s conception of the world. (J. & A. Tomlinson, Trans.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. BF721 .P5 1967X
  37. ^ Alexander Schlegel, Peter J. Kohler, Sergey V. Fogelson, Prescott Alexander, Dedeepya Konuthula, and Peter Ulric Tse (Sep 16, 2013) Network structure and dynamics of the mental workspace PNAS early edition
  38. ^ Hobson, J. Allan (1 October 2009). «REM sleep and dreaming: towards a theory of protoconsciousness». Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 10 (11): 803–813. doi:10.1038/nrn2716. PMID 19794431. S2CID 205505278.
  39. ^ Harmand, Sonia; Lewis, Jason E.; Feibel, Craig S.; Lepre, Christopher J.; Prat, Sandrine; Lenoble, Arnaud; Boës, Xavier; Quinn, Rhonda L.; Brenet, Michel; Arroyo, Adrian; Taylor, Nicholas; Clément, Sophie; Daver, Guillaume; Brugal, Jean-Philip; Leakey, Louise; Mortlock, Richard A.; Wright, James D.; Lokorodi, Sammy; Kirwa, Christopher; Kent, Dennis V.; Roche, Hélène (20 May 2015). «3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya». Nature. 521 (7552): 310–315. Bibcode:2015Natur.521..310H. doi:10.1038/nature14464. PMID 25993961. S2CID 1207285.
  40. ^ Vyshedsky, Andrey (2019). «Neuroscience of Imagination and Implications for Human Evolution» (PDF). Curr Neurobiol. 10 (2): 89–109.
  41. ^ Harari, Yuval N. (2014). Sapiens : a brief history of humankind. London. ISBN 9781846558245. OCLC 890244744.
  42. ^ Bar-Yosef, Ofer (October 2002). «The Upper Paleolithic Revolution». Annual Review of Anthropology. 31 (1): 363–393. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085416. ISSN 0084-6570.
  43. ^ Diamond, Jared M. (2006). The third chimpanzee : the evolution and future of the human animal. New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 0060845503. OCLC 63839931.
  44. ^ Freeman, R. E.; Dmytriyev, S.; Wicks, A. C. (2018). The moral imagination of Patricia werhane: A festschrift. Springer International Publishing. p. 97.
  45. ^ Johnson, M. (1993). Moral imagination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 202.
  46. ^ Langhof, J. G.; Gueldenberg, S. (2021). «Whom to serve? Exploring the moral dimension of servant leadership: Answers from operation Valkyrie». Journal of Management History. 27 (4): 537–573. doi:10.1108/jmh-09-2020-0056. S2CID 238689370.

Further reading[edit]

Books
  • Byrne, R. M. J. (2005). The Rational Imagination: How People Create Alternatives to Reality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
  • Egan, Kieran (1992). Imagination in Teaching and Learning. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Fabiani, Paolo «The Philosophy of the Imagination in Vico and Malebranche». F.U.P. (Florence UP), Italian edition 2002, English edition 2009.
  • Frye, N. (1963). The Educated Imagination. Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
  • Norman, Ron (2000) Cultivating Imagination in Adult Education Proceedings of the 41st Annual Adult Education Research.
  • Salazar, Noel B. (2010) Envisioning Eden: Mobilizing imaginaries in tourism and beyond. Oxford: Berghahn.
  • Sutton-Smith, Brian. (1988). In Search of the Imagination. In K. Egan and D. Nadaner (Eds.), Imagination and Education. New York, Teachers College Press.
  • Wilson, J. G. (2016). «Sartre and the Imagination: Top Shelf Magazines». Sexuality & Culture. 20 (4): 775–784. doi:10.1007/s12119-016-9358-x. S2CID 148101276.
Articles
  • Salazar, Noel B. (2020). On imagination and imaginaries, mobility and immobility: Seeing the forest for the trees. Culture & Psychology 1–10.
  • Salazar, Noel B. (2011). «The power of imagination in transnational mobilities». Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power. 18 (6): 576–598. doi:10.1080/1070289X.2011.672859. S2CID 143420324.
  • Watkins, Mary: «Waking Dreams» [Harper Colophon Books, 1976] and «Invisible Guests — The Development of Imaginal Dialogues» [The Analytic Press, 1986]
  • Moss, Robert: «The Three «Only» Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence, and Imagination» [New World Library, September 10, 2007]
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). «Imagination». Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 304–305.

Three philosophers for whom imagination is a central concept are Kendall Walton, John Sallis and Richard Kearney. See in particular:

  • Kendall Walton, Mimesis as Make-Believe: On the Foundations of the Representational Arts. Harvard University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-674-57603-9 (pbk.).
  • John Sallis, Force of Imagination: The Sense of the Elemental (2000)
  • John Sallis, Spacings-Of Reason and Imagination. In Texts of Kant, Fichte, Hegel (1987)
  • Richard Kearney, The Wake of Imagination. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (1988); 1st Paperback Edition- (ISBN 0-8166-1714-7)
  • Richard Kearney, «Poetics of Imagining: Modern to Post-modern.» Fordham University Press (1998)

External links[edit]

The dictionary definition of imagination at Wiktionary

  • Media related to imagination at Wikimedia Commons
  • Imagination on In Our Time at the BBC
  • Imagination, Mental Imagery, Consciousness, and Cognition: Scientific, Philosophical and Historical Approaches
  • Two-Factor Imagination Scale at the Open Directory Project
  • «The neuroscience of imagination». TED-Ed.

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English ymaginacioun, from Old French imaginacion, ymaginacion, from Latin imāginātiō.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/
  • Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun[edit]

imagination (countable and uncountable, plural imaginations)

  1. The image-making power of the mind; the act of mentally creating or reproducing an object not previously perceived; the ability to create such images.

    Imagination is one of the most advanced human faculties.

    • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 5, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad[1]:

      She removed Stranleigh’s coat with a dexterity that aroused his imagination.

  2. Particularly, construction of false images; fantasizing.

    You think someone’s been following you? That’s just your imagination.

  3. Creativity; resourcefulness.

    His imagination makes him a valuable team member.

  4. A mental image formed by the action of the imagination as a faculty; something imagined.
    Synonyms: conception, notion, imagining
    • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Youth and Age”, in The Essayes [], 3rd edition, London: [] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

      And yet the invention of young men, is more lively than that of old; and imaginations stream into their minds better, and, as it were, more divinely.

Synonyms[edit]

  • (the representative power): creativity, fancy, imaginativeness, invention, inventiveness

Derived terms[edit]

  • by any stretch of the imagination
  • by no stretch of imagination
  • by no stretch of the imagination
  • figment of one’s imagination
  • leave nothing to the imagination
  • leave to the imagination

Translations[edit]

image-making power of the mind

  • Albanian: imagjinatë (sq) f
  • Arabic: خَيَّال (ar) m (ḵayyāl), تَخَيُّل‎ m (taḵayyul), تَصَوُّر‎ m (taṣawwur), مُخَيَّلَة‎ f (muḵayyala)
  • Armenian: երեւակայություն (hy) (erewakayutʿyun)
  • Azerbaijani: təxəyyül (az), xəyal (az)
  • Bashkir: хыял (xıyal)
  • Belarusian: выабражэ́нне n (vyabražénnje), уяўле́нне (be) n (ujaŭljénnje)
  • Bengali: কল্পনা (bn) (kolpona)
  • Bulgarian: въображе́ние (bg) n (vǎobražénie)
  • Burmese: စိတ်ကူး (my) (citku:), စိတ်ကူးဉာဏ် (my) (citku:nyan)
  • Catalan: imaginació (ca) f
  • Cebuano: handurawan
  • Chinese:
    Cantonese: 想像力 (soeng2 zoeng6 lik6)
    Mandarin: 想像力 (zh) (xiǎngxiànglì)
  • Czech: představivost (cs) f
  • Danish: fantasi c, forestillingsevne c, indbildning
  • Dutch: verbeelding (nl) f, fantasie (nl)
  • Esperanto: imago (eo)
  • Estonian: ettekujutus
  • Finnish: mielikuvitus (fi)
  • French: imagination (fr) f
  • Galician: imaxinación (gl) f
  • Georgian: წარმოსახვა (c̣armosaxva), ფანტაზია (panṭazia), წარმოდგენა (c̣armodgena)
  • German: Vorstellungskraft (de) f, Imagination (de) f, Einbildungskraft (de) f, Fantasie (de) f
  • Greek: φαντασία (el) f (fantasía)
    Ancient: φαντασία f (phantasía), ἐπίνοια (epínoia)
  • Hebrew: דִּמְיוֹן (he) (dimyon)
  • Hindi: कल्पना (hi) f (kalpanā), तसव्वुर (hi) m (tasavvur), तख़य्युल m (taxayyul)
  • Hungarian: képzelet (hu)
  • Icelandic: ímyndunarafl (is) n
  • Indonesian: imajinasi (id)
  • Irish: íomháineacht f
  • Italian: immaginazione (it) f
  • Japanese: 想像力 (ja) (そうぞうりょく, sōzōryoku)
  • Kazakh: қиял (qiäl)
  • Khmer: រូបាទ្យារម្មណ៍ (ruupaatyiərɑm)
  • Korean: 상상력 (ko) (sangsangnyeok)
  • Kurdish:
    Northern Kurdish: xeyal (ku)
  • Kyrgyz: кыял (kıyal)
  • Lao: ຈິນຕະນາການ (lo) (chin ta nā kān)
  • Latin: opinio f
  • Latvian: iztēle f
  • Lithuanian: vaizduotė f
  • Macedonian: имагинација f (imaginacija)
  • Malay: imaginasi
  • Maori: pohewatanga
  • Middle English: ymaginacioun, ymagynynge
  • Mongolian:
    Cyrillic: төсөөлөл (mn) (tösöölöl)
  • Norwegian: fantasi (no) m, innbilning (no)
  • Old English: mōdes hīwung f, gedwimor m
  • Pashto: خيال (ps) m (xyāl), تخيل (ps) m (taxayól), تصور (ps) m (tasawór), مخيله‎ f (mxayelá)
  • Persian: خیال‌(xeyâl), تخیل (fa) (taxayyol), تصور (fa) (tasavvor), مخیله (fa) (moxayyele)
  • Plautdietsch: Enbildunk f
  • Polish: fantazja (pl) f, imaginacja (pl) f, wyobraźnia (pl) f
  • Portuguese: imaginação (pt) f
  • Romanian: imaginație (ro) f, fantezie (ro) f, forță de imaginare f
  • Russian: воображе́ние (ru) n (voobražénije)
  • Scottish Gaelic: mac-meanmna m
  • Serbo-Croatian:
    Cyrillic: ма̀шта f, имагина́ција f
    Roman: màšta (sh) f, imaginácija (sh) f
  • Slovak: predstavivosť f
  • Slovene: domišljija (sl) f
  • Spanish: imaginación (es) f, magín (es)
  • Swahili: ubunifu
  • Swedish: fantasi (sv) c, inbillning (sv) c
  • Tagalog: haraya (tl), imahinasyon
  • Tajik: хаёл (xayol), тахайюл (taxayyul), мухайяла (muxayyala)
  • Tamil: கற்பனை (ta) (kaṟpaṉai)
  • Tatar: хыял (tt) (xıyal)
  • Thai: จินตนาการ (th) (jin-dtà-naa-gaan)
  • Turkish: hayal gücü (tr), muhayyile (tr), imgelem (tr), hayal (tr)
  • Turkmen: hyýal
  • Ukrainian: уя́ва f (ujáva), уя́влення (uk) n (ujávlennja)
  • Urdu: خیال‎ m (xayāl, xiyāl), تخیل‎ m (taxayyul), تصور‎ m (tasavvur)
  • Uyghur: خىيال(xiyal)
  • Uzbek: xayol (uz), taxayyul (uz)
  • Vietnamese: sự hình dung (vi), sự tưởng tượng (vi)

construction of false images

  • Armenian: երեւակայություն (hy) (erewakayutʿyun)
  • Chinese:
    Mandarin: 想像 (zh) (xiǎngxiàng)
  • Dutch: verbeelding (nl) f
  • Finnish: kuvittelu (fi), mielikuvitus (fi)
  • Indonesian: imajinasi (id)
  • Irish: íomháineacht f
  • Japanese: 想像 (ja) (sōzō), 空想 (ja) (kūsō)
  • Korean: 상상 (ko) (sangsang)
  • Middle English: ymaginacioun
  • Polish: urojenie (pl) n
  • Portuguese: imaginação (pt) f
  • Romanian: închipuire (ro) f, imaginare (ro) f, iluzionare (ro) f
  • Russian: воображе́ние (ru) n (voobražénije)
  • Scottish Gaelic: mac-meanmna m
  • Swedish: inbillning (sv) c

creativity; resourcefulness See also translations at creativity

mental image

  • Arabic: صُورَة ذِهْنِيَّة(ṣūra(t) ḏihniyya)
  • Armenian: մտապատկեր (hy) (mtapatker)
  • Belarusian: выабражэ́нне n (vyabražénnje), уяўле́нне (be) n (ujaŭljénnje)
  • Bulgarian: въображе́ние (bg) n (vǎobražénie)
  • Dutch: verbeelding (nl) f
  • Finnish: mielikuva (fi)
  • German: Vorstellung (de) f, Einbildung (de) f
  • Greek: φαντασίωση (el) f (fantasíosi)
  • Hungarian: képzelet (hu)
  • Icelandic: ímyndun (is) f
  • Indonesian: imajinasi (id)
  • Japanese: 想像 (ja) (sōzō), 空想 (ja) (kūsō)
  • Kurdish:
    Central Kurdish: خەیاڵ(xeyall)
  • Maori: pohewatanga
  • Middle English: ymaginacioun
  • Polish: wyobrażenie (pl) n
  • Portuguese: imaginação (pt) f
  • Romanian: imagine (ro) f, imaginare (ro) f, închipuire (ro) f
  • Russian: воображе́ние (ru) n (voobražénije)
  • Spanish: imaginación (es) f
  • Swedish: fantasi (sv) c, inbillning (sv) c (false image)
  • Ukrainian: уя́ва f (ujáva), уя́влення (uk) n (ujávlennja)

Further reading[edit]

  • imagination on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle French, from Old French imaginacion, borrowed from Latin imāginātiō, imāginātiōnem.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /i.ma.ʒi.na.sjɔ̃/

Noun[edit]

imagination f (plural imaginations)

  1. (countable and uncountable) imagination

[edit]

  • image
  • imaginer
  • imaginatif

Further reading[edit]

  • “imagination”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle French[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

  • ymagination

Etymology[edit]

From Old French imaginacion, borrowed from Latin imāginātiō.

Noun[edit]

imagination f (plural imaginations)

  1. (countable and uncountable) imagination
  2. thought; reflection; idea

[edit]

  • imaginer

Descendants[edit]

  • French: imagination

1

: the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality

2

b

: ability to confront and deal with a problem : resourcefulness

use your imagination and get us out of here

c

: the thinking or active mind : interest

stories that fired the imagination

3

a

: a creation of the mind

especially

: an idealized or poetic creation

b

: fanciful or empty assumption

Synonyms

Example Sentences



You can find a solution if you use a little imagination.



The author does not tell us what happens to the characters. We have to use our imagination.



He’s a competent writer, but he lacks imagination.



Is it just my imagination, or is it getting warm in here?

Recent Examples on the Web

Good taste was a misguided concept in Dubuffet’s world, and for this reason, the walls curve and swoop, requiring imagination from the visitors who navigate around it.


Grace Banks, Forbes, 22 Mar. 2023





For more than three months, Google executives have watched as projects at Microsoft and a San Francisco start-up called OpenAI have stoked the public’s imagination with the potential for artificial intelligence.


Cade Metz, New York Times, 21 Mar. 2023





Marriott Marquis Houston Sleek and modern, the Marriott Marquis has poured imagination and resources into offering one-of-a-kind experiences.


Elisabeth Carroll Parks, Chron, 20 Mar. 2023





The care and imagination put into the envelope of existence is a sign of the strength of a society’s humming self-confidence.


Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 20 Mar. 2023





In the almost-light of moonglow, imagination will fill in the blanks.


Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Mar. 2023





But what if right-wing extremism is mostly a figment of the mainstream media’s collective imagination?


David Harsanyi, National Review, 16 Mar. 2023





Fall 2023 is slated to be a season of unabashed imagination if its beauty trends are any indication.


Calin Van Paris, Vogue, 10 Mar. 2023





Turning Red brought cultural specificity and a freewheeling imagination to a delightful coming-of-age tale.


David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Mar. 2023



See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘imagination.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English ymaginacioun, borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French ymaginacion, borrowed from Latin imāginātiōn-, imāginātiō, from imāginārī «to imagine» + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of verbal action

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of imagination was
in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near imagination

Cite this Entry

“Imagination.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/imagination. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023.

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More from Merriam-Webster on imagination

Last Updated:
26 Mar 2023
— Updated example sentences

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Merriam-Webster unabridged

  • 1
    imagination

    imagination [ɪˏmædʒɪˊneɪʃn]

    n

    1) воображе́ние; фанта́зия

    2) тво́рческая фанта́зия

    3) (мы́сленный) о́браз

    Англо-русский словарь Мюллера > imagination

  • 2
    imagination

    Персональный Сократ > imagination

  • 3
    imagination

    English-Russian combinatory dictionary > imagination

  • 4
    imagination

    [ɪˌmæʤɪ’neɪʃ(ə)n]

    сущ.

    1) воображение; фантазия

    active / lively / vivid imagination — живое воображение

    to excite / fire smb.’s imagination — возбуждать чью-л. фантазию

    to defy / stagger / stir smb.’s imagination — воздействовать на чьё-л. воображение

    That surpassed all imagination. — Это превосходило все ожидания.

    Syn:

    Ant:

    2) находчивость, изобретательность; гибкость ума

    That was a strategy of no imagination. — Это была неизобретательная стратегия.

    3) выдумка, вымысел

    People often stick to their own imagination. — Люди часто цепляются за то, что сами выдумывают.

    Syn:

    4) мысленный образ, представление

    vain / false imagination — неверное, ошибочное представление

    ••

    Англо-русский современный словарь > imagination

  • 5
    imagination

    1. n воображение, фантазия

    2. n творческое воображение

    3. n редк. мысленный образ

    4. n изобретательность, находчивость

    Синонимический ряд:

    fantasy (noun) daydream; dream; fancy; fantasy; imaginativeness; nightmare; phantasy

    English-Russian base dictionary > imagination

  • 6
    imagination

    [ı͵mædʒıʹneıʃ(ə)n]

    1. 1) воображение, фантазия

    a man of no imagination — человек без воображения, человек, лишённый фантазии

    to catch smb.’s imagination — захватить чьё-л. воображение

    2) творческое воображение

    3. изобретательность, находчивость

    use your imagination! — придумай что-нибудь!

    НБАРС > imagination

  • 7
    imagination

    English-Russian big medical dictionary > imagination

  • 8
    imagination

    Англо-русский синонимический словарь > imagination

  • 9
    imagination

    [ɪˌmædʒɪˈneɪʃən]

    imagination воображение

    English-Russian short dictionary > imagination

  • 10
    imagination

    1) воображение

    2) фантазия

    Англо-русский технический словарь > imagination

  • 11
    imagination

    1. воображение, фантазия;

    2. мысленный образ;

    3. изобретательность, находчивость.

    * * *

    сущ.

    1) воображение, фантазия;

    2) мысленный образ;

    3) изобретательность, находчивость.

    Англо-русский словарь по социологии > imagination

  • 12
    imagination

    Универсальный англо-русский словарь > imagination

  • 13
    imagination

    [ɪˏmæʤɪ`neɪʃ(ə)n]

    воображение; фантазия

    мысленный образ, представление

    выдумка, вымысел

    находчивость, изобретательность; гибкость ума

    Англо-русский большой универсальный переводческий словарь > imagination

  • 14
    imagination

    noun

    1) воображение; фантазия

    2) творческая фантазия

    2) (мысленный) образ

    Syn:

    fancy, fantasy, reverie

    Ant:

    actuality, fact, reality, truth

    * * *

    (n) воображение

    * * *

    * * *

    [im·ag·i·na·tion || ɪ‚mædʒɪ’neɪʃn]
    воображение, фантазия, творческая фантазия, образ

    * * *

    воображение

    образ

    фантазия

    * * *

    1) воображение; фантазия (тж. творческая)
    2) а) мысленный образ, представление (о чем-л.)
    б) выдумка
    3) находчивость, изобретательность; гибкость ума

    Новый англо-русский словарь > imagination

  • 15
    imagination

    воображение, фантазия; выдумка; умственный образ, понятие, представление, созданное воображением

    Англо-русский словарь по психоаналитике > imagination

  • 16
    imagination

    Patent terms dictionary > imagination

  • 17
    imagination

    воображение; фантазия; вымысел

    English-Russian dictionary of technical terms > imagination

  • 18
    imagination

    The Americanisms. English-Russian dictionary. > imagination

  • 19
    imagination

    воображение

    образ

    фантазия

    English-Russian smart dictionary > imagination

  • 20
    imagination

    Англо-русский словарь по рекламе > imagination

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См. также в других словарях:

  • imagination — [ imaʒinasjɔ̃ ] n. f. • XIIe; lat. imaginatio I ♦ L IMAGINATION. 1 ♦ Faculté que possède l esprit de se représenter des images; connaissances, expérience sensible. Le domaine des idées et celui de l imagination. Cela a frappé son imagination. 2 ♦ …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Imagination! — (formerly The Journey Into Imagination pavilion) is the name of a pavilion that sits on the western side of Future World , one of two themed areas of Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida USA. It holds… …   Wikipedia

  • Imagination — (>lat.: imago „Bild“) ist synonym mit Einbildung, Einbildungskraft, Phantasie, bildhaft anschaulichem Vorstellen.[1] Es wird darunter die psychologische Fähigkeit verstanden, sich nicht gegenwärtige Situationen, Vorgänge, Gegenstände und… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Imagination — Im*ag i*na tion, n. [OE. imaginacionum, F. imagination, fr. L. imaginatio. See {Imagine}.] 1. The imagine making power of the mind; the power to create or reproduce ideally an object of sense previously perceived; the power to call up mental… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • imagination — Imagination. s. f. v. La faculté de l ame qui imagine. Il a l imagination vive, l imagination forte, l imagination grande, l imagination fertile, l imagination gastée. la force de l imagination. voyez ce que peut l imagination. un effet de l… …   Dictionnaire de l’Académie française

  • IMAGINATION — IMAGINATION, the power of the soul which retains images derived from sense perception, or which combines such images or their parts into new composite images, which took on a special meaning in philosophy. To Aristotle (De Anima, 3), the term… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • imagination — imagination, fancy, fantasy are comparable when denoting either the power or the function of the mind by which mental images of things are formed or the exercise of that power especially as manifested in poetry or other works of art. The meanings …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • Imagination — • The faculty of representing to oneself sensible objects independently of an actual impression of those objects on our senses Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Imagination     Imagination …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • imagination — Imagination, Imaginatio. Imagination rude, qui n est pas du tout façonnée, Informatio. L imagination et fantasie du peuple, Populi sensus. B. ex Cic …   Thresor de la langue françoyse

  • imagination — IMAGINATION: Toujours vive. S en défier. Quand on n en a pas, la dénigrer chez les autres. Pour écrire des romans, il suffit d avoir de l imagination …   Dictionnaire des idées reçues

  • imagination — (n.) faculty of the mind which forms and manipulates images, mid 14c., ymaginacion, from O.Fr. imaginacion concept, mental picture; hallucination, from L. imaginationem (nom. imaginatio) imagination, a fancy, noun of action from pp. stem of… …   Etymology dictionary

  • Top Definitions
  • Synonyms
  • Quiz
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  • Examples
  • British
  • Idioms And Phrases

This shows grade level based on the word’s complexity.

[ ih-maj-uhney-shuhn ]

/ ɪˌmædʒ əˈneɪ ʃən /

This shows grade level based on the word’s complexity.


noun

the faculty of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses.

the action or process of forming such images or concepts.

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. 9).

the product of imagining a conception or mental creation, often a baseless or fanciful one.

ability to face and resolve difficulties; resourcefulness: a job that requires imagination.

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 ).

(in Kantian epistemology) synthesis of data from the sensory manifold into objects by means of the categories.

Archaic. a plan, scheme, or plot.

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Origin of imagination

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, Middle French, from Latin imāginātiōn- (stem of imāginātiō ) “mental image, fancy,” equivalent to imāgināt(us), past participle of the verb imāginārī imagine (imāgin-, stem of imāgō image + -ātus -ate1) + -iōn- -ion

synonym study for imagination

OTHER WORDS FROM imagination

i·mag·i·na·tion·al, adjectivenon·im·ag·i·na·tion·al, adjective

Words nearby imagination

imaginary axis, imaginary number, imaginary part, imaginary runner, imaginary unit, imagination, imaginative, imagine, imagineer, imagineering, imaging

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Words related to imagination

artistry, awareness, fancy, fantasy, idea, image, imagery, ingenuity, insight, inspiration, intelligence, inventiveness, originality, resourcefulness, thought, vision, wit, acuteness, chimera, cognition

How to use imagination in a sentence

  • It takes us as finite beings and gives us almost infinite capacity to create new worlds of imagination.

  • The process of decolonizing one’s imagination is the first step to envisioning a future where pleasures are more evenly distributed than was the case in our past.

  • Now, with a little imagination, there are days where I can embrace it as a New Age-y sweat-based regimen among the skittering rodents.

  • People, he says, are too limited by their own experience and imaginations.

  • They have little imagination about how to engage in social change, and even less imagination about the alternative world they would build if they could.

  • Does each character have one in real life that inspired it, or are they from your imagination?

  • She found instead a show of imagination, artistry, and above all, really happy people—and she quickly fell in love.

  • This little nook is the perfect spot for some quiet reading time or to let your imagination run wild.

  • So after that initial inspiration, my imagination created the rest.

  • Today, Turkey in the German imagination has mostly to do with immigration, assimilation, and EU membership.

  • Distance, the uncertain light, and imagination, magnified it to a high wall; high as the wall of China.

  • I could have sworn I heard a cry, and one of my men spoke in a tone that assured me my imagination had not been playing a trick.

  • It was when the face and figure of a great tragedian began to haunt her imagination and stir her senses.

  • How much of the imagination, how much of the intellect, evaporates and is lost while we seek to embody it in words!

  • When she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore.

British Dictionary definitions for imagination


noun

the faculty or action of producing ideas, esp mental images of what is not present or has not been experienced

mental creative ability

the ability to deal resourcefully with unexpected or unusual problems, circumstances, etc

(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)

Derived forms of imagination

imaginational, 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

Other Idioms and Phrases with imagination


see figment of one’s imagination.

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

i·mag·i·na·tion

 (ĭ-măj′ə-nā′shən)

n.

1.

a. The ability to form mental images of things that are not present to the senses or not considered to be real: The author uses her imagination to create a universe parallel to our own.

b. The formation of such images: a child’s imagination of monsters.

c. One of these mental images: «some secret sense … which … took to itself and treasured up … her thoughts, her imaginations, her desires» (Virginia Woolf).

d. The mind viewed as the locus or repository of this ability or these images: «This story had been rattling around in my imagination for years» (Orson Scott Card).

2. The ability to confront and deal with reality by using the creative power of the mind; resourcefulness: handled the problems with great imagination.

3. Attention, interest, or enthusiasm: an explorer’s ordeal that caught the imagination of the public.


i·mag′i·na′tion·al adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

imagination

(ɪˌmædʒɪˈneɪʃən)

n

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. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) (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 material. Compare fancy9

imˌagiˈnational adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

im•ag•i•na•tion

(ɪˌmædʒ əˈneɪ ʃən)

n.

1. the action or faculty of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses.

2. creative talent or ability.

3. the product of imagining; a conception or mental creation.

4. ability to face and resolve difficulties; resourcefulness.

[1300–50; Middle English < Latin]

Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun 1. imagination - the formation of a mental image of something that is not perceived as real and is not present to the sensesimagination — the formation of a mental image of something that is not perceived as real and is not present to the senses; «popular imagination created a world of demons»; «imagination reveals what the world could be»

fancy — a kind of imagination that was held by Coleridge to be more casual and superficial than true imagination

fantasy, phantasy — imagination unrestricted by reality; «a schoolgirl fantasy»

dreaming, dream — imaginative thoughts indulged in while awake; «he lives in a dream that has nothing to do with reality»

2. imagination - the ability to form mental images of things or eventsimagination — the ability to form mental images of things or events; «he could still hear her in his imagination»

representational process — any basic cognitive process in which some entity comes to stand for or represent something else

mind’s eye — the imaging of remembered or invented scenes; «I could see her clearly in my mind’s eye»

vision — a vivid mental image; «he had a vision of his own death»

dream, dreaming — a series of mental images and emotions occurring during sleep; «I had a dream about you last night»

3. imagination — the ability to deal resourcefully with unusual problems; «a man of resource»

armory, armoury, inventory — a collection of resources; «he dipped into his intellectual armory to find an answer»

Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

imagination

noun

1. creativity, vision, invention, ingenuity, enterprise, insight, inspiration, wit, originality, inventiveness, resourcefulness He has a logical mind and a little imagination.

2. mind’s eye, fancy Long before I went there, the place was alive in my imagination.

3. interest, attention, curiosity, fascination Italian football captured the imagination of the nation last season.

Quotations
«The Possible’s slow fuse is lit»
«By the Imagination» [Emily Dickinson]
«People can die of mere imagination» [Geoffrey Chaucer The Miller’s Tale]
«Nature uses imagination to lift her work of creation to even higher levels» [Luigi Pirandello Six Characters in Search of an Author]
«I have imagination, and nothing that is real is alien to me» [George Santayana Little Essays]
«Only in men’s imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life» [Joseph Conrad A Personal Record]
«My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it» [Ursula Le Guin Winged: the Creatures on My Mind]
«Imagination, the supreme delight of the immortal and the immature, should be limited. In order to enjoy life, we should not enjoy it too much» [Vladimir Nabokov Speak, Memory]

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

imagination

noun

The power of the mind to form images:

The American Heritage® Roget’s Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Translations

خيالخَيالخَيَالٌخَيال، قُدْرَةٌ على الإبتداعخَيال، وَهْم

představivostvýplod obrazotvornostifantazieobrazotvornost

fantasiforestillingsevne

imago

mielikuvitusmielikuva

mašta

képzeletképzelõdésképzelõtehetség

ímyndunímyndunarafl

想像

상상

obrazotvornosťpredstavivosťvýplod predstavivosti

domišljija

fantasi

จินตนาการ

trí tưởng tượng

Collins Spanish Dictionary — Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

imagination

[ɪˌmædʒɪˈneɪʃən] n

(= ability to imagine) → imagination f
to have a vivid imagination → avoir une imagination fertile
to have little imagination → avoir peu d’imagination
a lack of imagination → un manque d’imagination
it’s just your imagination → tu imagines des choses
to capture sb’s imagination → frapper l’imagination de qn

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

imagination

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

imagine

(iˈmӕdʒin) verb

1. to form a mental picture of (something). I can imagine how you felt.

2. to see or hear etc (something which is not true or does not exist). Children often imagine that there are frightening animals under their beds; You’re just imagining things!

3. to think; to suppose. I imagine (that) he will be late.

iˈmaginary adjective

existing only in the mind or imagination; not real. Her illnesses are usually imaginary.

iˌmagiˈnation noun

1. (the part of the mind which has) the ability to form mental pictures. I can see it all in my imagination.

2. the creative ability of a writer etc. This book shows a lot of imagination.

3. the seeing etc of things which do not exist. There was no-one there – it was just your imagination.

iˈmaginative (-nətiv) , ((American) -neitiv) adjective

(negative unimaginative) having, or created with, imagination. an imaginative writer; This essay is interesting and imaginative.

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.

imagination

خَيَالٌ představivost fantasi Phantasie φαντασία imaginación mielikuvitus imagination mašta immaginazione 想像 상상 verbeelding fantasi wyobraźnia imaginação воображение fantasi จินตนาการ hayal trí tưởng tượng 想象力

Multilingual Translator © HarperCollins Publishers 2009

imag·i·na·tion

n. imaginación.

English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

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It’s definitely true that there are a lot of the devices we used on ‘Star Trek,’ that came out the imagination of the writers, and the creators that are actually in the world today.

LeVar Burton

section

PRONUNCIATION OF IMAGINATION

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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF IMAGINATION

Imagination is a noun.

A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

WHAT DOES IMAGINATION MEAN IN ENGLISH?

imagination

Imagination

Imagination, also called the faculty of imagining, is the ability to form new images and sensations that are not perceived through senses such as sight, hearing, or other senses. Imagination helps make knowledge applicable in solving problems and is fundamental to integrating experience and the learning process A basic training for imagination is listening to storytelling, in which the exactness of the chosen words is the fundamental factor to «evoke worlds». It is a whole cycle of image formation or any sensation which may be described as «hidden» as it takes place without anyone else’s knowledge. A person may imagine according to his mood, it may be good or bad depending on the situation. Some people imagine in a state of tension or gloominess in order to calm themselves. It is accepted as the innate ability and process of inventing partial or complete personal realms within the mind from elements derived from sense perceptions of the shared world. The term is technically used in psychology for the process of reviving in the mind, percepts of objects formerly given in sense perception.


Definition of imagination in the English dictionary

The first definition of imagination in the dictionary is the faculty or action of producing ideas, esp mental images of what is not present or has not been experienced. Other definition of imagination is mental creative ability. Imagination is also the ability to deal resourcefully with unexpected or unusual problems, circumstances, etc.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH IMAGINATION

Synonyms and antonyms of imagination in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS OF «IMAGINATION»

The following words have a similar or identical meaning as «imagination» and belong to the same grammatical category.

Translation of «imagination» into 25 languages

online translator

TRANSLATION OF IMAGINATION

Find out the translation of imagination to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.

The translations of imagination from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «imagination» in English.

Translator English — Chinese


想象力

1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English — Spanish


imaginación

570 millions of speakers

Translator English — Hindi


कल्पना

380 millions of speakers

Translator English — Arabic


خَيَالٌ

280 millions of speakers

Translator English — Russian


воображение

278 millions of speakers

Translator English — Portuguese


imaginação

270 millions of speakers

Translator English — Bengali


কল্পনা

260 millions of speakers

Translator English — French


imagination

220 millions of speakers

Translator English — Malay


Imaginasi

190 millions of speakers

Translator English — German


Phantasie

180 millions of speakers

Translator English — Japanese


想像

130 millions of speakers

Translator English — Korean


상상

85 millions of speakers

Translator English — Javanese


Bayangan

85 millions of speakers

Translator English — Vietnamese


trí tưởng tượng

80 millions of speakers

Translator English — Tamil


கற்பனை

75 millions of speakers

Translator English — Marathi


कल्पना

75 millions of speakers

Translator English — Turkish


hayal gücü

70 millions of speakers

Translator English — Italian


immaginazione

65 millions of speakers

Translator English — Polish


wyobraźnia

50 millions of speakers

Translator English — Ukrainian


уява

40 millions of speakers

Translator English — Romanian


imaginație

30 millions of speakers

Translator English — Greek


φαντασία

15 millions of speakers

Translator English — Afrikaans


verbeelding

14 millions of speakers

Translator English — Swedish


fantasi

10 millions of speakers

Translator English — Norwegian


fantasi

5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of imagination

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «IMAGINATION»

The term «imagination» is very widely used and occupies the 9.063 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.

Trends

FREQUENCY

Very widely used

The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «imagination» in the different countries.

Principal search tendencies and common uses of imagination

List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «imagination».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «IMAGINATION» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «imagination» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «imagination» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about imagination

10 QUOTES WITH «IMAGINATION»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word imagination.

The level of our success is limited only by our imagination and no act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.

A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.

My imagination is my polestar; I steer by that.

Imagination has brought mankind through the dark ages to its present state of civilization. imagination led Columbus to discover America. imagination led Franklin to discover electricity.

Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.

The thing that most attracts me to historical fiction is taking the factual record as far as it is known, using that as scaffolding, and then letting imagination build the structure that fills in those things we can never find out for sure.

It’s definitely true that there are a lot of the devices we used on ‘Star Trek,’ that came out the imagination of the writers, and the creators that are actually in the world today.

An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down. It starts in my imagination, it becomes my life, and it stays part of my life long after I’ve left the opera house.

Nature’s imagination is so boundless compared to our own meager human imagination.

Many scientists think that philosophy has no place, so for me it’s a sad time because the role of reflection, contemplation, meditation, self inquiry, insight, intuition, imagination, creativity, free will, is in a way not given any importance, which is the domain of philosophers.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «IMAGINATION»

Discover the use of imagination in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to imagination and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.

1

The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays

These essays reveal Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975)—known in the West largely through his studies of Rabelais and Dostoevsky—as a philosopher of language, a cultural historian, and a major theoretician of the novel.

M. M. Bakhtin, Michael Holquist, 2010

2

The Sociological Imagination

C. Wright Mills is best remembered for his highly acclaimed work The Sociological Imagination, in which he set forth his views on how social science should be pursued.

3

Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination

Collected in this chilling volume are some of the famous Japanese mystery writer Edowaga RampoÆs best stories—bizarre and blood-curdling expeditions into the fantastic, the perverse, and the strange, in a marvelous homage to Rampo’s …

4

Rethinking Imagination: Culture and Creativity

This distinguished collection of papers argues for a positive interpretation of imagination. It discusses the different ways in which the concept of the imagination has been construed.

Gillian Robinson, John F. Rundell, 1994

5

The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and …

Intricate and challenging in its arguments, yet engagingly and elegantly written, The Environmental Imagination is a major work of scholarship, one that establishes a new basis for the reading of American nature writing.

6

The Geography of the Imagination: Forty Essays

He can send you out eagerly searching for C. M. Doughty’s six-volume epic poem, The Dawn in Britain, and for the works of Ronald Johnson, Jonathan Williams and Paul Metcalf.

7

Imagination and Interpretation in Kant: The Hermeneutical …

In this illuminating study of Kant’s theory of imagination and its role in interpretation, Rudolf A. Makkreel argues against the commonly held notion that Kant’s transcendental philosophy is incompatible with hermeneutics.

8

The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace

His influential 1997 book Building Peace has become a classic in the discipline. This new book represents his thinking and learning over the past several years.

9

The Democratic Imagination: Envisioning Popular Power in the …

The Democratic Imagination examines different conceptions of democracy, exploring tensions that emerge in key moments and debates in the history of democracy, from Ancient Greece to the French Revolution to contemporary Egypt.

James Cairns, Alan Sears, 2012

10

You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the …

What all these maps have in common is their creators’ willingness to venture beyond the boundaries of geography or convention. You Are Here is a wide-ranging collection of such superbly inventive maps.

Katharine A. Harmon, 2004

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «IMAGINATION»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term imagination is used in the context of the following news items.

Sand sculpting leasons aim to help kids use their imagination and …

Sand sculpting leasons aim to help kids use their imagination and be creative. A professional sand sculptor teaches sculpting techniques to … «WDBJ7, Jul 15»

A’s catcher hosts benefit auction for School of Imagination | News …

«School of Imagination helps children with all types of disabilities — from autism to social issues — come to a school and be accepted for who … «Pleasanton Weekly, Jul 15»

Children’s author lets imagination run wild — News — telegram.com …

So, she turned to writing to express her feelings, describe the things in her world and let her imagination run wild. Hart began by writing song … «Worcester Telegram, Jul 15»

Horizon(R) Partners With The Peanuts Movie to Drive Imagination

BROOMFIELD, Colo., July 16, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Horizon®, a leading national organic dairy brand, announced today a new … «Virtual-Strategy Magazine, Jul 15»

Investec Reiterates “Buy” Rating for Imagination Technologies …

Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts’ ratings for Imagination Technologies Group … «The Legacy, Jul 15»

Imagination Tech Grp Upgraded to Buy by Investec (IGNMF …

Imagination Tech Grp logo Investec upgraded shares of Imagination Tech Grp (NASDAQ:IGNMF) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a … «sleekmoney, Jul 15»

Imagination and creativity for awards | The Ridge News

Throughout the early planning of the 2015 International Opal Jewellery Design Awards Association, Opal Trade Show and Awards … «The Ridge News, Jul 15»

BOOKS PLUS: Imagination, science and… ventriloquism

Imagination Fair: Calling all children five years and older: Let your imagination run free at the CPL’s Imagination Fair. Taking place at the City … «The Tri-City News, Jul 15»

Woodland Trust’s Centenary Woods project captures parliament’s …

Woodland Trust’s Centenary Woods project captures parliament’s imagination. MPs, Peers and funders gathered this week in support of the … «PoliticsHome.com, Jul 15»

Beyond imagination

The Children’s Festival will take place during two sessions Friday at Pioneer Park in Nevada City. The first will be from 9 a.m. to noon, the … «The Union of Grass Valley, Jul 15»

REFERENCE

« EDUCALINGO. Imagination [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/imagination>. Apr 2023 ».

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Discover all that is hidden in the words on educalingo

examples:

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Augeas

(Greek mythology) the mythical Greek king who for 30 years did not clean his stables which contained his vast herd of cattle

Alcyone

(Greek mythology) a woman who was turned into a kingfisher

Arjuna

(Hindu mythology) the warrior prince in the Bhagavad-Gita to whom Krishna explains the nature of being and of God and how humans can come to know God

Death

the personification of death

Gargantua

a voracious giant in Francois Rabelais’ book of the same name

Maxwell’s demon

an imaginary creature that controls a small hole in a partition that divides a chamber filled with gas into two parts and allows fast molecules to move in one direction and slow molecules to move in the other direction through the hole; this would result in one part of the container becoming warmer and the other cooler, thus decreasing entropy and violating the second law of thermodynamics

Martian

imaginary people who live on the planet Mars

Humpty Dumpty

an egg-shaped character in a nursery rhyme who fell off a wall and could not be put back together again (late 17th century)

Jack Frost

a personification of frost or winter weather

Mammon

(New Testament) a personification of wealth and avarice as an evil spirit

Scylla

(Greek mythology) a sea nymph transformed into a sea monster who lived on one side of a narrow strait; drowned and devoured sailors who tried to escape Charybdis (a whirlpool) on the other side of the strait

Stentor

the mythical Greek warrior with an unusually loud voice who died after losing a shouting contest with Hermes

Dardanus

(Greek mythology) founder of Troy

Ganymede

(Greek mythology) a Trojan boy who was so beautiful that Zeus carried him away to serve as cupbearer to the gods

Hyperborean

(Greek mythology) one of a people that the ancient Greeks believed lived in a warm and sunny land north of the source of the north wind

Niobe

(Greek mythology) the daughter of Tantalus whose boasting about her children provoked Apollo and Artemis to slay them all; Niobe was turned to stone while bewailing her loss

Perseus

(Greek mythology) the son of Zeus who slew Medusa (with the help of Athena and Hermes) and rescued Andromeda from a sea monster

Andromeda

(Greek mythology) an Ethiopian princess and daughter of Cassiopeia; she was fastened to a rock and exposed to a sea monster that was sent by Poseidon, but she was rescued by Perseus and became his wife

Cepheus

(Greek mythology) king of Ethiopia and husband of Cassiopeia

Cassiopeia

(Greek mythology) the wife of Cepheus and mother of Andromeda

Midas

(Greek legend) the greedy king of Phrygia who Dionysus gave the power to turn everything he touched into gold

Sisyphus

(Greek legend) a king in ancient Greece who offended Zeus and whose punishment was to roll a huge boulder to the top of a steep hill; each time the boulder neared the top it rolled back down and Sisyphus was forced to start again

Narcissus

(Greek mythology) a beautiful young man who fell in love with his own reflection

Nibelung

(German mythology) a companion or follower of Siegfried

Bellerophon

(Greek mythology) a mythical hero of Corinth who performed miracles on the winged horse Pegasus (especially killing the monster Chimera)

Paris

(Greek mythology) the prince of Troy who abducted Helen from her husband Menelaus and provoked the Trojan War

Patroclus

(Greek mythology) a friend of Achilles who was killed in the Trojan War; his death led Achilles to return to the fight after his quarrel with Agamemnon

Pegasus

(Greek mythology) the immortal winged horse that sprang from the blood of the slain Medusa; was tamed by Bellerophon with the help of a bridle given him by Athena; as the flying horse of the Muses it is a symbol of highflying imagination

Python

(Greek mythology) dragon killed by Apollo at Delphi

Sarpedon

(Greek mythology) a son of Zeus who became king of Lycia; fought on behalf of the Trojans in the Trojan War and was killed by Patroclus

Siegfried

(German mythology) mythical German warrior hero of the Nibelungenlied who takes possession of the accursed treasure of the Nibelungs by slaying the dragon that guards it and awakens Brynhild and is eventually killed; Sigurd is the Norse counterpart

Sigurd

(Norse mythology) mythical Norse warrior hero who gains an accursed hoard of gold and was killed by Brynhild; Siegfried is the German counterpart

Eumenides

(classical mythology) the hideous snake-haired monsters (usually three in number) who pursued unpunished criminals

Enkidu

legendary friend of Gilgamish

Gilgamish

legendary Sumerian king and hero of Sumerian and Babylonian epics

Sita

wife of the Hindu god Rama; regarded as an ideal of womanhood

Hero

(Greek mythology) priestess of Aphrodite who killed herself when her lover Leander drowned while trying to swim the Hellespont to see her

Leander

(Greek mythology) a youth beloved of Hero who drowned in a storm in the Hellespont on one of his nightly visits to see her

Pygmalion

(Greek mythology) a king who created a statue of a woman and fell in love with it; Aphrodite brought the sculpture to life as Galatea

Galatea

(Greek mythology) a maiden who was first a sculpture created by Pygmalion and was brought to life by Aphrodite in answer to Pygmalion’s prayers

Romulus

(Roman mythology) founder of Rome; suckled with his twin brother Remus by a wolf after their parents (Mars and Rhea Silvia) abandoned them; Romulus killed Remus in an argument over the building of Rome

Remus

(Roman mythology) the twin brother of Romulus

Daedalus

(Greek mythology) an Athenian inventor who built the labyrinth of Minos; to escape the labyrinth he fashioned wings for himself and his son Icarus

Icarus

(Greek mythology) son of Daedalus; while escaping from Crete with his father (using the wings Daedalus had made) he flew too close to the sun and the wax melted and he fell into the Aegean and drowned

Procrustes

(Greek mythology) a mythical giant who was a thief and murderer; he would capture people and tie them to an iron bed, stretching them or hacking off their legs to make them fit; was killed by Theseus

Eurydice

(Greek mythology) the wife of Orpheus

Orion

(Greek mythology) a giant Boeotian hunter who pursued the Pleiades and was eventually slain by Artemis; was then placed in the sky as a constellation

Orpheus

(Greek mythology) a great musician; when his wife Eurydice died he went to Hades to get her back but failed

Psyche

(Greek mythology) a beautiful princess loved by Cupid who visited her at night and told her she must not try to see him; became the personification of the soul

Heracles

(classical mythology) a hero noted for his strength; performed 12 immense labors to gain immortality

Pandora

(Greek mythology) the first woman; created by Hephaestus on orders from Zeus who presented her to Epimetheus along with a box filled with evils

Fenrir

(Norse mythology) an enormous wolf that was fathered by Loki and that killed Odin

Volund

(Norse mythology) a wonderful smith; identified with Anglo-Saxon Wayland and Teutonic Wieland

Yggdrasil

(Norse mythology) a huge ash tree whose roots and branches hold the earth and Heaven and Hell together

Ymir

(Norse mythology) the primeval giant slain by Odin and his brothers and from whose body they created the world: the sea from his blood; the earth from his flesh; the mountains from his bones; the sky from his skull

Wayland the Smith

(European mythology) a supernatural smith and king of the elves; identified with Norse Volund

Ajax

a mythical Greek hero; a warrior who fought against Troy in the Iliad

Aladdin

in the Arabian Nights a boy who acquires a magic lamp from which he can summon a genie

Argonaut

(Greek mythology) one of the heroes who sailed with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece

Babar

an imaginary elephant that appears in a series of French books for children

Beatrice

the woman who guided Dante through Paradise in the Divine Comedy

Beowulf

the legendary hero of an anonymous Old English epic poem composed in the early 8th century; he slays a monster and becomes king but dies fighting a dragon

Bluebeard

(fairytale) a monstrous villain who marries seven women; he kills the first six for disobedience

James Bond

British secret operative 007 in novels by Ian Fleming

Valkyrie

(Norse mythology) one of the maidens of Odin who chose heroes to be slain in battle and conducted them to Valhalla

Brer Rabbit

the fictional character of a rabbit who appeared in tales supposedly told by Uncle Remus and first published in 1880

Paul Bunyan

a legendary giant lumberjack of the north woods of the United States and Canada

John Henry

hero of American folk tales; portrayed as an enormously strong black man who worked on the railroads and died from exhaustion after winning a contest with a steam drill

Cheshire cat

a fictional cat with a broad fixed smile on its face; created by Lewis Carroll

Chicken Little

a fictional character who was hit on the head with an acorn and believed that the sky was falling

Cinderella

a fictional young girl who is saved from her stepmother and stepsisters by her fairy godmother and a handsome prince

Colonel Blimp

a pompous reactionary cartoon character created by Sir David Low

Dracula

fictional vampire in a gothic horror novel by Bram Stoker

Jason

(Greek mythology) the husband of Medea and leader of the Argonauts who sailed in quest of the Golden Fleece

Medea

(Greek mythology) a princess of Colchis who aided Jason in taking the Golden Fleece from her father

Laertes

(Greek mythology) the father of Odysseus

Odysseus

(Greek mythology) a famous mythical Greek hero; his return to Ithaca after the siege of Troy was described in the Odyssey

Ulysses

(Roman mythology) Roman spelling for Odysseus

Penelope

(Greek mythology) the wife of Odysseus and a symbol of devotion and fidelity; for 10 years while Odysseus fought the Trojan War she resisted numerous suitors until Odysseus returned and killed them

Theseus

(Greek mythology) a hero and king of Athens who was noted for his many great deeds: killed Procrustes and the Minotaur and defeated the Amazons and united Attica

Tantalus

(Greek mythology) a wicked king and son of Zeus; condemned in Hades to stand in water that receded when he tried to drink and beneath fruit that receded when he reached for it

Achilles

a mythical Greek hero of the Iliad; a foremost Greek warrior at the siege of Troy; when he was a baby his mother tried to make him immortal by bathing him in a magical river but the heel by which she held him remained vulnerable—his `Achilles’ heel’

Aeneas

a mythical Greek warrior who was a leader on the Trojan side of the Trojan War; hero of the Aeneid

Atreus

(Greek mythology) the king of Mycenae and father of Agamemnon and of Menelaus

Agamemnon

(Greek mythology) the king who lead the Greeks against Troy in the Trojan War

Menelaus

(Greek mythology) the king of Sparta at the time of the Trojan War; brother of Agamemnon; husband of Helen

Iphigenia

(Greek mythology) the daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon; Agamemnon was obliged to offer her as a sacrifice to Artemis when the Greek fleet was becalmed on its way to Troy; Artemis rescued her and she later became a priestess

Clytemnestra

(Greek mythology) wife of Agamemnon who had him murdered when he returned from the Trojan War

Aegisthus

(Greek mythology) the seducer of Clytemnestra and murderer of Agamemnon who usurped the throne of Mycenae until Agamemnon’s son Orestes returned home and killed him

Orestes

(Greek mythology) the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; his sister Electra persuaded him to avenge Agamemnon’s death by killing Clytemnestra and Aegisthus

Antigone

(Greek mythology) the daughter of King Oedipus who disobeyed her father and was condemned to death

Creon

(Greek mythology) the brother of Jocasta and uncle of Antigone who became king of Thebes after the fall of Oedipus

Jocasta

(Greek mythology) queen of Thebes who unknowingly married her own son Oedipus

Electra

(Greek mythology) the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; persuaded her brother (Orestes) to avenge Agamemnon’s death by helping her to kill Clytemnestra and her lover (Aegisthus)

Laocoon

(Greek mythology) the priest of Apollo who warned the Trojans to beware of Greeks bearing gifts when they wanted to accept the Trojan Horse; a god who favored the Greeks (Poseidon or Athena) sent snakes who coiled around Laocoon and his two twin sons killing them

Laius

(Greek mythology) king of Thebes who was unwittingly killed by his son Oedipus

Myrmidon

(Greek mythology) a member of the warriors who followed Achilles on the expedition against Troy

King Oedipus

(Greek mythology) a tragic king of Thebes who unknowingly killed his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta; the subject of the drama `Oedipus Rex’ by Sophocles

Tiresias

(Greek mythology) the blind prophet of Thebes who revealed to Oedipus that Oedipus had murdered his father and married his mother

Peleus

a king of the Myrmidons and father of Achilles

Don Quixote

the hero of a romance by Cervantes; chivalrous but impractical

El Cid

the hero of a Spanish epic poem from the 12th century

Fagin

a villainous Jew in a novel by Charles Dickens

Sir John Falstaff

a dissolute character in Shakespeare’s plays

Father Brown

a Catholic priest who was the hero of detective stories by G. K. Chesterton

Faustus

an alchemist of German legend who sold his soul to Mephistopheles in exchange for knowledge

Frankenstein

the fictional Swiss scientist who was the protagonist in a gothic novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley; he created a monster from parts of corpses

Frankenstein’s monster

the monster created by Frankenstein in a gothic novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (the creator’s name is commonly used to refer to his creation)

Goofy

a cartoon character created by Walt Disney

Gulliver

a fictional Englishman who travels to the imaginary land of Lilliput in a satirical novel by Jonathan Swift

Hamlet

the hero of William Shakespeare’s tragedy who hoped to avenge the murder of his father

Hector

(Greek mythology) a mythical Trojan who was killed by Achilles during the Trojan War

Helen of Troy

(Greek mythology) the beautiful daughter of Zeus and Leda who was abducted by Paris; the Greek army sailed to Troy to get her back which resulted in the Trojan War

Captain Horatio Hornblower

a fictional English admiral during the Napoleonic Wars in novels written by C. S. Forester

Iago

the villain in William Shakespeare’s tragedy who tricked Othello into murdering his wife

Commissaire Maigret

a fictional detective in novels by Georges Simenon

Kilroy

a nonexistent person popularized by American servicemen during World War II

King Lear

the hero of William Shakespeare’s tragedy who was betrayed and mistreated by two of his scheming daughters

Leda

(Greek mythology) a queen of Sparta who was raped by Zeus who had taken the form of a swan; Helen of Troy was conceived in the rape of Leda

Lilliputian

a 6-inch tall inhabitant of Lilliput in a novel by Jonathan Swift

Philip Marlowe

tough cynical detective (one of the early detective heroes in American fiction) created by Raymond Chandler

Wilkins Micawber

fictional character created by Charles Dickens; an eternal optimist

Mother Goose

the imaginary author of a collection of nursery rhymes

Mr. Moto

Japanese sleuth created by John Marquand

Othello

the hero of William Shakespeare’s tragedy who would not trust his wife

Pangloss

an incurable optimist in a satire by Voltaire

Pantaloon

a character in the commedia dell’arte; portrayed as a foolish old man

Perry Mason

fictional detective in novels by Erle Stanley Gardner

Peter Pan

the main character in a play and novel by J. M. Barrie; a boy who won’t grow up

Pied Piper of Hamelin

the title character in a German folk tale and in a poem by Robert Browning

Pierrot

a male character in French pantomime; usually dressed in white with a whitened face

Pluto

a cartoon character created by Walt Disney

Huckleberry Finn

a mischievous boy in a novel by Mark Twain

Rip van Winkle

the title character in a story by Washington Irving about a man who sleeps for 20 years and doesn’t recognize the world when he wakens

Ruritanian

an imaginary inhabitant of Ruritania

Tarzan of the Apes

a man raised by apes who was the hero of a series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Tom Sawyer

the boy hero of a novel by Mark Twain

Uncle Remus

the fictional storyteller of tales written in the Black Vernacular and set in the South; the tales were first collected and published in book form in 1880

Uncle Tom

a servile black character in a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Sam

a personification of the United States government

Sherlock Holmes

a fictitious detective in stories by A. Conan Doyle

Simon Legree

the cruel slave dealer in an anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Sinbad the Sailor

in the Arabian Nights a hero who tells of the fantastic adventures he had in his voyages

Snoopy

a fictional beagle in a comic strip drawn by Charles Schulz

Ali Baba

the fictional woodcutter who discovered that `open sesame’ opened a cave in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainment

Emile

the boy whose upbringing was described by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

protagonist

the principal character in a work of fiction

Houyhnhnm

one of a race of intelligent horses who ruled the Yahoos in a novel by Jonathan Swift

Little John

legendary follower of Robin Hood; noted for his size and strength

Little Red Riding Hood

a girl in a fairy tale who meets a wolf while going to visit her grandmother

Rodya Raskolnikov

a fictional character in Dostoevsky’s novel `Crime and Punishment’; he kills old women because he believes he is beyond the bounds of good or evil

Robin Hood

legendary English outlaw of the 12th century; said to have robbed the rich to help the poor

Robinson Crusoe

the hero of Daniel Defoe’s novel about a shipwrecked English sailor who survives on a small tropical island

Rumpelstiltskin

a dwarf in one of the fairy stories of the brothers Grimm; tells a woman he will not hold her to a promise if she can guess his name and when she discovers it he is so furious that he destroys himself

Shylock

a merciless usurer in a play by Shakespeare

Father Christmas

the legendary patron saint of children; an imaginary being who is thought to bring presents to children at Christmas

Tristram

(Middle Ages) the nephew of the king of Cornwall who (according to legend) fell in love with his uncle’s bride (Iseult) after they mistakenly drank a love potion that left them eternally in love with each other

Iseult

(Middle Ages) the bride of the king of Cornwall who (according to legend) fell in love with the king’s nephew (Tristan) after they mistakenly drank a love potion that left them eternally in love with each other

Scaramouche

a stock character in commedia dell’arte depicted as a boastful coward

Svengali

the musician in a novel by George du Maurier who controls Trilby’s singing hypnotically

Sweeney Todd

fictional character in a play by George Pitt; a barber who murdered his customers

Tom Thumb

an imaginary hero of English folklore who was no taller than his father’s thumb

Trilby

singer in a novel by George du Maurier who was under the control of the hypnotist Svengali

Walter Mitty

fictional character created by James Thurber who daydreams about his adventures and triumphs

Yahoo

one of a race of brutes resembling men but subject to the Houyhnhnms in a novel by Jonathan Swift

King Arthur

a legendary king of the Britons (possibly based on a historical figure in the 6th century but the story has been retold too many times to be sure); said to have led the Knights of the Round Table at Camelot

Sir Galahad

(Arthurian legend) the most virtuous knight of the Round Table; was able to see the Holy Grail

Sir Gawain

(Arthurian legend) a nephew of Arthur and one of the knights of the Round Table

Guenevere

(Arthurian legend) wife of King Arthur; in some versions of the legend she became Lancelot’s lover and that led to the end of the Knights of the Round Table

Sir Lancelot

(Arthurian legend) one of the knights of the Round Table; friend of King Arthur until (according to some versions of the legend) he became the lover of Arthur’s wife Guinevere

Merlin

(Arthurian legend) the magician who acted as King Arthur’s advisor

Priam

(Greek mythology) the last king of Troy; father of Hector and Paris and Cassandra

Sasquatch

large hairy humanoid creature said to live in wilderness areas of the United States and Canada

Loch Ness monster

a large aquatic animal supposed to resemble a serpent or plesiosaur of Loch Ness in Scotland

Fafnir

(Norse mythology) the Norse dragon that guarded a treasure and was slain by Sigurd

types:

show 48 types…
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fictitious place, imaginary place, mythical place

a place that exists only in imagination; a place said to exist in fictional or religious writings

fancy

a kind of imagination that was held by Coleridge to be more casual and superficial than true imagination

fantasy, phantasy

imagination unrestricted by reality

dream, dreaming

imaginative thoughts indulged in while awake

imaginary being, imaginary creature

a creature of the imagination; a person that exists only in legends or myths or fiction

afterworld

the place where you are after you die

Annwfn, Annwn

(Welsh mythology) the other world; land of fairies

Asgard

(Norse mythology) the heavenly dwelling of the Norse gods (the Aesir) and slain war heroes

Atlantis

according to legend, an island in the Atlantic Ocean that Plato said was swallowed by an earthquake

Brobdingnag

a land imagined by Jonathan Swift where everything was enormous

cloud-cuckoo-land

an imaginary place where you say people are when they seem optimistically out of touch with reality

Cockaigne

(Middle Ages) an imaginary land of luxury and idleness

El Dorado, eldorado

an imaginary place of great wealth and opportunity; sought in South America by 16th-century explorers

faerie, faery, fairyland

the enchanted realm of fairies

Heaven

the abode of God and the angels

Elysium

a place or condition of ideal happiness

Hades, Hell, Scheol, infernal region, netherworld, underworld

(religion) the world of the dead

Hell, Inferno, infernal region, nether region, perdition, pit

(Christianity) the abode of Satan and the forces of evil; where sinners suffer eternal punishment

Houyhnhnms

a land imagined by Jonathan Swift where intelligent horses ruled the Yahoos

Laputa

a land imagined by Jonathan Swift where impractical projects were pursued and practical projects neglected

Lilliput

a land imagined by Jonathan Swift that was inhabited by tiny people

limbo

(theology) in Roman Catholicism, the place of unbaptized but innocent or righteous souls (such as infants and virtuous individuals)

limbo

an imaginary place for lost or neglected things

Midgard

(Norse mythology) the abode of humans in Norse mythology

dreamland, dreamworld, never-never land

a pleasing country existing only in dreams or imagination

purgatory

(theology) in Roman Catholic theology the place where those who have died in a state of grace undergo limited torment to expiate their sins

Ruritania

an imaginary kingdom in central Europe; often used as a scene for intrigue and romance

spirit world

any imaginary place where spiritual beings (demons or fairies or angels or the like) abide

Sion, Utopia, Zion

an imaginary place considered to be perfect or ideal

wonderland

an imaginary realm of marvels or wonders

dream, pipe dream

a fantastic but vain hope (from fantasies induced by the opium pipe)

fantasy life, phantasy life

an imaginary life lived in a fantasy world

fairyland, fantasy world, phantasy world

something existing solely in the imagination (but often mistaken for reality)

air castle, castle in Spain, castle in the air, daydream, daydreaming, oneirism, reverie, revery

absentminded dreaming while awake

woolgathering

an idle indulgence in fantasy

hypothetical creature

a creature that has not been observed but is hypothesized to exist

mythical being

an imaginary being of myth or fable

giant

an imaginary figure of superhuman size and strength; appears in folklore and fairy tales

hobbit

an imaginary being similar to a person but smaller and with hairy feet; invented by J.R.R. Tolkien

mermaid

half woman and half fish; lives in the sea

merman

half man and half fish; lives in the sea

Cadmus

(Greek mythology) the brother of Europa and traditional founder of Thebes in Boeotia

monster

an imaginary creature usually having various human and animal parts

witch

a being (usually female) imagined to have special powers derived from the devil

character, fictional character, fictitious character

an imaginary person represented in a work of fiction (play or film or story)

psychopomp

a conductor of souls to the afterworld

sylph

an elemental being believed to inhabit the air

unicorn

an imaginary creature represented as a white horse with a long horn growing from its forehead

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