# imagery

Pronunciation: say "IM-ij-ree" /ˈɪmɪd͡ʒɹi/

## Noun

1. Visual images in general, or a collection of images considered as a whole.
   - Simple: Pictures or photos, especially many of them seen as a group.
   - _Archaeologists rely on aerial imagery to locate buried structures._
   - _The brand refreshed its imagery ahead of the product launch._
2. Vivid descriptive language in writing or speech that presents or suggests pictures of things to the senses.
   - Simple: Words that make pictures in your mind when you read or listen.
   - _The novel's imagery of rust and decay reinforces its theme of neglect._
   - _Keats fills his odes with rich sensory imagery of ripening fruit and humming bees._
3. The work or craft of a maker of images, such as carved or sculpted representations of objects.
   - Simple: The work of making statues, pictures, or other figures of things, or the figures themselves.
   - _The cathedral's facade is covered with imagery carved by medieval masons._
   - _Workshops in the town produced religious imagery in wood and alabaster for churches across the region._
4. Ideas and images produced by the imagination or fancy that are false or have no basis in reality.
   - Simple: Pictures and ideas that come from your imagination but are not real.
   - _His jealous suspicions proved to be mere imagery, with no basis in fact._
   - _The fever filled her sleep with wild imagery of drowned cities and endless staircases._
5. An unreal show or false appearance; imitation rather than substance.
   - Simple: A show or look that is not real, only a copy of the real thing.
   - _The senator's folksy warmth was pure imagery, rehearsed for the cameras._
   - _Behind the mansion's grandeur lay nothing but imagery: rented furniture and borrowed paintings._
6. Work made in imitation of another material or thing.
   - Simple: Work that is made to copy or look like something else.
   - _The hall's marble columns turned out to be imagery, pine painted with remarkable skill._
   - _Dishonest dealers sold imagery as genuine tortoiseshell to unwary customers._

## Origin

This word comes from Middle English 'ymagerie', borrowed from Middle French 'imagerie'; it is equivalent to 'image' plus the suffix '-ry'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/imagery (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).