imagination

[ih-maj-uh-ney-shuhn]

noun

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

2. the action or process of forming such images or concepts.

3. the faculty of producing ideal creations consistent with reality, as in literature, as distinct from the power of creating illustrative or decorative imagery.

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

5. ability to face and resolve difficulties; resourcefulness.

   a job that requires imagination.

   Synonyms: thought, enterprise, ingenuity

6. Psychology.,  the power of reproducing images stored in the memory under the suggestion of associated images reproductive imagination or of recombining former experiences in the creation of new images directed at a specific goal or aiding in the solution of problems creative imagination.

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

8. Archaic.,  a plan, scheme, or plot.

imagination

/ ɪˌmædʒɪˈneɪʃən /

noun

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

2. mental creative ability

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

4. (in romantic literary criticism, esp that of S. T. Coleridge) a creative act of perception that joins passive and active elements in thinking and imposes unity on the poetic material Compare fancy

Other Word Forms

• imaginational adjective
• nonimaginational adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of imagination¹

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 -ate ¹ ) + -iōn- -ion

Idioms and Phrases

see figment of one's imagination.

Synonym Study

See fancy.

Example Sentences

The town and farm life he’d lived in Pennsylvania governed his imagination with even more intensity than the suburban Massachusetts world in which he would spend his adulthood.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But according to Owen Rees, they are more a reflection of their writers’ bigoted imaginations than the truth.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

And while England have reached the Nations League finals, been relegated and been promoted, the tournament has yet to really capture the imagination in the country.

Read more on BBC

Like Pre’s life, this book ends too soon—with unwritten chapters now filled by our own imagination.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

It didn’t require much imagination to see how scouts would one day declare him the rare defensive line prospect worthy of the word “generational.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• artistry 
• awareness 
• fancy 
• fantasy 
• idea 
• image 
• imagery 
• ingenuity 
• insight 
• inspiration 
• intelligence 
• inventiveness www.thesaurus.com
• originality 
• resourcefulness www.thesaurus.com
• thought 
• vision 
• wit