imagination

noun

i-maj-uh-NAY-shuhn/ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/

Pluralimaginations

4 meanings of imagination

1
nouncountable or uncountable
The mind's power to make pictures of things that are not in front of you.
Like a movie screen inside your head that can show you anything.
Close your eyes and use your imagination to picture a beach with white sand.
Reading stories helps build children's imaginations.
Similarvision, fancy, mind
Note
2
noununcountable
The ability to think of new and clever ideas.
It takes imagination to cook a good dinner with so few ingredients.
The students showed real imagination when they turned old boxes into a castle.
Similarcreativity, inventiveness, ingenuity, originality, resourcefulness
3
noununcountable
Something that exists only in the mind, like a picture you create by thinking.
The talking animals in her story are imagination, not real creatures.
He drew the whole city from imagination instead of copying a photo.
Similarnotion, conception, imagining
Oppositereality, fact
Note
4
noununcountable
Making up pictures or ideas of things that are not real or did not happen.
The strange shadow in the hallway was only imagination. Nothing was there.
He thought his friends were angry with him, but it was all imagination.
Similarfantasy, fancy, delusion, illusion, invention
Oppositereality, fact
Note

Practice

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Origin

From Latin imāginātiō, coming through Old French and Middle English. It is imagine plus -ation.