# imaginary

Pronunciation: US say "i-MAJ-i-nair-ee" /ɪˈmæd͡ʒɪˌn(ɛ)ɹi/; UK say "i-MAJ-i-nuh-ree" /ɪˈmæd͡ʒɪnəɹi/

## Adjective

1. Existing only in someone's imagination, not in reality.
   - Simple: Existing only in the mind, not in real life.
   - _Children often invent imaginary companions to keep them company._
   - _The novel unfolds in an imaginary kingdom far from any real country._
2. Describing the part of a complex number that is a real multiple of the imaginary unit √−1, having no real component.
   - Simple: In math, describing a number that is a multiple of the square root of minus one.
   - _The quadratic has no real solutions, only imaginary roots._
   - _Multiplying two imaginary numbers can produce a real result._

## Noun

3. A complex number with no real component; a real multiple of the imaginary unit.
   - Simple: A number that is a multiple of the square root of minus one, with no real part.
   - _Each imaginary on the diagram sat along the vertical axis._
   - _The two imaginaries summed to a value with no real part._
4. The set of values, institutions, laws, and symbols shared by a social group, through which its members picture their society as a whole.
   - Simple: The shared ideas, rules, and symbols a group uses to picture itself as one whole society.
   - _Scholars study how a national imaginary shapes the way citizens see themselves._
   - _Shared myths and rituals form part of a community's collective imaginary._
5. The faculty of imagination; the mind's power of forming images and fancies.
   - Simple: The ability to make pictures and ideas in your mind.
   - _The poet's imaginary conjured whole worlds from a single image._
   - _Grief can darken the imaginary, filling idle hours with dread._

## Origin

From Middle English ymaginarie, from Latin imāginārius ("relating to images, fancied"), from imāgō "image," equivalent to imagine + -ary. The mathematical sense comes from René Descartes's use of the French imaginaire in his 1637 La Géométrie, coined to ridicule the notion of treating non-real roots of polynomials as numbers; although his usage was derogatory, the term stuck even after the concept gained acceptance in the 18th century.

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