image

IM-ij/ˈɪmɪd͡ʒ/

Pluralimages

Verbimages, imaging, imaged

12 meanings of image

Practice

1
picturenouncountable
A visual or other representation of the outward form of something, as in art or photography.
The artist painted a striking image of the old harbor.
Photographers captured countless images of the eclipse.
Similarpicture, likeness, depiction, representation, portrait
Note
The range is wide. The graven images the Bible forbids and the MRI images Brian Hayes lists in American Scientist (2012) are the same noun.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
The Bible prohibits graven images. en.wikisource.org
Brian Hayes listed MRI images in American Scientist in 2012. americanscientist.org
2
public impressionnouncountable
The way a person, group, or company is perceived by others, including style and manner of dress.
The company spent millions polishing its public image.
Politicians often worry about their images more than their policies.
UsageCommon phrases: a public image, improve or damage your image, an image problem.
Similarreputation, profile, persona, brand, standing
3
mental picturenouncountable
A likeness of something imaginary or absent, called up in the mind's eye.
She kept a clear image of the beach in her mind.
Painful images of the accident haunted him for years.
UsageOften an image of something in your mind or head.
Similarpicture, vision, memory, impression
Note
Inside the head rather than on the wall, the thing pictured here is absent or imagined. The Economist wrote in 2013, "think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers." That sentence edges toward public reputation. The difference is whether the picture is simply held in a mind or is a shared public impression of its subject, whether deliberately cultivated or not.
4
take picturesverbtransitive
To create a visual representation of something.
The new scanner can image the whole document in seconds.
Doctors imaged the patient's brain to find the problem.
Similarscan, photograph, capture
Note
The working verb of laboratories and hospitals: scanners image documents, and doctors image a brain. Its participle does much of the work, as in the "single-imaging optic" of the mammalian eye that Fenella Saunders describes in American Scientist (2013). Unlike the literary verb of portrayal, this one is about instruments recording what is actually there.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
Fenella Saunders described the mammalian eye using the exact phrase "single-imaging optic" in American Scientist in 2013. americanscientist.org
5
statuenouncountable
A sculpted or carved figure, especially a statue or idol set up as an object of worship.
Pilgrims bowed before the golden image in the temple.
Ancient images of forgotten gods lined the stone walls.
Similaridol, statue, effigy, figure, icon
6
disk filenouncountable
A file containing all the information needed to produce a complete working copy of a system or disk.
The technician deployed a single image to every workstation in the lab.
Corrupted images failed to mount during the recovery process.
Note
A computing word for a faithful copy of stored data. A disk image holds a disk's contents; a ROM image holds data from a ROM chip or cartridge. Game console emulators need ROM images, which they usually cannot ship for copyright reasons. Image copy names the same idea, and the backup verb is how one is made.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
Images reproduce the contents of particular storage media. A ROM image can contain only one chip's data, rather than everything required for a working system. docs.mamedev.org
Console emulation uses game images, which generally cannot be bundled without copyright permission. mamedev.org

Less common meanings

7
portrayverbtransitive
To represent or portray something by means of an image or symbol.
Writers image the soul as a caged bird to convey longing.
The mural imaged the city's struggle in vivid color.
UsageFor picturing something in your mind, use imagine; image means show or symbolize, often image one thing as another.
Similarportray, depict, represent, picture, render
Note
A literary verb, most at home in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century prose. Jane Austen's Persuasion has lines that "imaged a broken heart," and Hawthorne uses it of a forest road in The Scarlet Letter (1850). Boswell's "as I had imaged to myself" shows it sliding toward imagine.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
Jane Austen's Persuasion contains the quoted wording. gutenberg.org
Nathaniel Hawthorne uses imaged in describing a forest road in The Scarlet Letter. gutenberg.org
The Scarlet Letter was first published in 1850. en.wikisource.org
Boswell wrote the quoted phrase, using imaged for something mentally pictured. gutenberg.org
8
copy a diskverbtransitive
To make a full backup copy of an entire file system, disk, or similar unit of data.
Administrators image each server before applying major updates.
She imaged the failing disk to recover the data later.
Similarclone, copy
Note
Computing turned the noun into a verb: to produce the file holding a working copy, capturing a whole disk, partition or system rather than picking out files. Where back up can mean saving selected files, imaging usually captures everything needed to restore a working copy.
9
nouncountable
The value, or set of values, that a function produces from a given input, a set of inputs, or its whole domain.
For the squaring function, the image of −4 is 16.
Different inputs can share the same image under this function.
Note
Mathematicians often attach it to a single input and name the function with "under": 6 is the image of 3 under f, where f(x) = 2x. The image is always an element of the codomain, and two different arguments may share one. The same word also names a whole collection of outputs, as in the image of a set or of the entire domain.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
For f(x) = 2x, the image of 3 is 6, by substitution into the function rule. courses.maths.ox.ac.uk
The image of a single input belongs to the codomain. courses.maths.ox.ac.uk
Two different arguments can have the same image. math.cmu.edu
Image also denotes the set of outputs obtained from a subset or the entire domain. courses.maths.ox.ac.uk
10
nounobsolete
Outward show, appearance, or aspect.
The face of things a frightful image bears.
1697, Virgil, The Works of Virgil
Note
In this obsolete use, image means the look a thing presents rather than a picture of it. Dryden's translation of Virgil (1697) has "the face of things a frightful image bears," meaning the scene wears a frightful aspect. Modern readers tend to hear public image or a literal picture in such lines. Reading it as "appearance" recovers the older sense.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
An obsolete sense of image is outward appearance or aspect. en.wiktionary.org
John Dryden's translation of Virgil was first published in 1697. openbook.lib.utah.edu
The quoted wording occurs in Dryden's translation, describing the frightening appearance of the scene. en.wikisource.org
11
verbrare
To reflect or mirror something.
Sorrow was dead indeed in her, but peace and perfect happiness were born; imaged in her tranquil beauty and profound repose.
1840, Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop
12
noun
A form of interference consisting of a weaker copy of a strong signal that appears at a different frequency.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of image apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Latin imāgō ("a copy, likeness, image") came from a Proto-Indo-European root that also produced Latin imitari ("to copy, imitate"). Old French had image from the Latin, and Middle English borrowed it as ymage. Imago is a doublet.