imaginationi‧ma‧gi‧na‧tion /ɪˌmædʒəˈneɪʃən/ ●●● S3 W3 noun 
a storyteller with an incredible imagination It does not take much imagination to understand their grief. With a little imagination, you can find great inexpensive gifts.2be (a figment of) somebody’s imagination to be something that someone imagines, not something that really exists or happens: Did you hear that noise, or was it my imagination? These people do exist; they’re not figments of my imagination.3in somebody’s imagination only existing or happening in someone’s mind, not in real life: For the refugees, home exists only in their imagination.4capture/catch somebody’s imagination to make people feel very interested and excited: American football really captured the imagination of the British public.5leave something to somebody’s imagination to deliberately not describe something because you think someone can guess or imagine it: Mercifully, the writer leaves most of the physical horrors to our imagination.6leave little/nothing to the imagination a)if someone’s clothes leave little or nothing to the imagination, the clothes are very thin or are worn in a way that shows the person’s body: Her black satin dress left nothing to the imagination. b)if something sexual or violent is described in a way that leaves nothing to the imagination, it is described in too much detail7use your imagination spoken used to tell someone that they can easily guess the answer to a question, so you should not need to tell them → not by any stretch of the imagination at stretch2(4)COLLOCATIONSadjectivesa good imagination· She's a lively child, with a good imagination.great imagination· His paintings show great imagination.a vivid/fertile imagination (=an ability to think of a lot of ideas and things that could happen)· She had a fertile imagination and a great sense of humour.· With your vivid imagination, you should write a book.an overactive/fevered imagination (=a mind that imagines strange things that are not real)· These stories are the product of an overactive imagination.the public imagination· The story captured the public imagination.creative imagination· I don't have the creative imagination to be a writer.verbshave (an) imagination· Her poems show that she has a lot of imagination.use your imagination· Musicians need to use their imagination as well as their technical skills.show/display imagination· His latest paintings display a vivid imagination.lack imagination· A lot of today's pop music seems to lack imagination.fire/stimulate somebody's imagination (=make someone use their imagination)· The aim of the exhibition is to stimulate people's imagination.phrasesbe full of imagination· Her stories are full of imagination.a lack of imagination· Their policies show a lack of imagination.let your imagination run wild (also let your imagination run riot British English) (=allow yourself to imagine many strange or wonderful things)· He uses painting as a way of letting his imagination run riot.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Debbie has a very good imagination.
- I don't have a photograph with me so you'll have to use your imagination.
- Jack's vivid imagination often gave him bad dreams.
- Maybe it was just my imagination, but he seemed really hostile.
- Reading is a good way to develop a child's imagination at an early age.
- Shakespeare has the most fertile imagination of all the poets.
- There's no-one knocking at the door - it must have been your imagination.
- Dressed in tweeds and constantly pipe smoking, his imagination often ran away with him.
- Each of these views is part of or generated a coherent system, but they are systems fed by imagination.
- In my imagination and nightmares I have done time in an iron lung.
- That this may not be the case in certain instances does not take much imagination to comprehend.
- The gymslip Lolita is not entirely a figment of the male imagination.
- These things belonged to the past moments in which he first envisioned them, images in photographs he took in his imagination.
- This would be a well-placed lesson to her in how to use her imagination a bit more.
Longman Language Activatoryour ability to imagine things
· Reading is a good way to develop a child's imagination at an early age.· There's no-one knocking at the door - it must have been your imagination.use your imagination · I don't have a photograph with me so you'll have to use your imagination.vivid imagination (=very strong imagination) · Jack's vivid imagination often gave him bad dreams.fertile imagination (=having a lot of original ideas) · Shakespeare has the most fertile imagination of all the poets.
to wrongly think that something is happening to wrongly think that you can see or hear something when it is not really happening: imagine (that): · When I was a child I would lie awake imagining that there were monsters in the dark corners of my room.· Mary was always imagining that people were talking about her behind her back.I/you/he etc must be imagining things: · "I'm sure I saw Brian in the park today.'' "No, you must be imagining things. Brian hasn't lived here for nearly fifteen years.''
especially spoken say this when you or someone else has imagined something that cannot be real: I/you/he etc must be seeing things: · "Did that man just wave at me?'' "Of course not, you must be seeing things.''
if something is in the mind or in your mind , you are imagining it and it does not really exist: all in the mind: · I don't think Martin is really ill -- it's all in the mind.all in your mind: · No-one is trying to kill you. It's all in your mind.
if someone who is ill or has taken drugs hallucinates , they believe that they can see things that are not really there: · After two days without food and water, Voss began to hallucinate.
something that does not really exist and that you were just imagining: · Sceptics will tell you that there is no such thing as reincarnation and that living a previous life is a figment of the subject's imagination.
when something cannot happen, exist, or be true use this to say that you are sure that something cannot happen, exist, or be true: · "Did you know that I can hold my breath for three minutes?" "Impossible!"· "The police suspect John.'' "But that's impossible. He was with us the whole day.''it is impossible (that): · It was impossible that anyone could have survived the crash.
impossible use this especially when you are very surprised about something: · "Abigail won't give us the money," said Jim. "But that's not possible," replied Ben, "she told me only this morning that she would.''it is not possible that: · It's not possible that Kate was at the party too. I would have seen her.
use this to say that it is not possible for something to have happened or for someone to have done something: · They can't have gone out because all the windows are open.· What you're saying can't possibly be true. I don't believe it.· New evidence proved that the accused couldn't have been at the scene of the crime.
spoken say this when you strongly believe that something is impossible: there's no way (that): · There's no way we can possibly get the bed up those stairs.· If the computer system is working properly, there's no way that it could make a mistake.
impossible or very difficult to imagine: · When I was a boy, having a bath every day was an inconceivable luxury.· The slaughter thousands of innocent US citizens would have been inconceivable until recently.it is inconceivable that: · Many people thought it was inconceivable that the crash could have been an accident.
if something is unthinkable , it seems impossible because it is so shocking, nasty, difficult etc: · The amount of sex on television that we see today would have been unthinkable in previous decades.it is unthinkable that: · It is unthinkable that anyone would dare to enter the Control Area without permission.unthinkable for somebody to do something: · In those days it was unthinkable for a lady to work outside the home.
if something is not possible by any or by no stretch of the imagination, you cannot even imagine it being possible: · The new software program is not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination.· By no stretch of the imagination could Carl ever be called good-looking.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRYadjectives stories of magic and adventure that fire children’s imaginations Charlie has a very lively imagination (=he often invents stories, descriptions etc that are not true). Such fears are nothing more than the product of an overactive imagination. her overheated imagination The poem succeeds in stirring the imagination. Be creative – allow your imagination to run wild.COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE
· She's a lively child, with a good imagination.
· His paintings show great imagination.
(=an ability to think of a lot of ideas and things that could happen)· She had a fertile imagination and a great sense of humour.· With your vivid imagination, you should write a book.
(=a mind that imagines strange things that are not real)· These stories are the product of an overactive imagination.
· The story captured the public imagination.
· I don't have the creative imagination to be a writer.
verbs· Her poems show that she has a lot of imagination.
· Musicians need to use their imagination as well as their technical skills.
· His latest paintings display a vivid imagination.
· A lot of today's pop music seems to lack imagination.
(=make someone use their imagination)· The aim of the exhibition is to stimulate people's imagination.
phrases· Her stories are full of imagination.
· Their policies show a lack of imagination.
(also let your imagination run riot British English) (=allow yourself to imagine many strange or wonderful things)· He uses painting as a way of letting his imagination run riot.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES (=when someone is able to form pictures or ideas easily)· Some of the children have an overactive imagination.
stories of magic and adventure that fire children’s imaginations Charlie has a very lively imagination (=he often invents stories, descriptions etc that are not true). Such fears are nothing more than the product of an overactive imagination. her overheated imagination· The characters in the series failed to catch the popular imagination.
The poem succeeds in stirring the imagination. Be creative – allow your imagination to run wild.· The camera does not seem to have made the take-over bid for his active imagination that other people record.· Until now, it has been relegated to sketches by Hollywood types with active imaginations, Elliott said.· They also gave her a much valued safety-valve for an almost too active imagination.· Some children with this motor-planning problem may gradually give up their active, organized imagination.· No, all it has taken is a nice, warm bed and an active imagination coaxing me into a deep sleep.
· The creative imagination reconciles inner and outer worlds in metaphorical synthesis.· Those are the right touchstones: breadth of mental outlook and creative imagination.· His piece here demonstrates something insufficiently noted-the way in which his creative imagination informs his acute thought.· It must involve the total mobilization of the creative energies, imagination and problem-solving capacities of the entire nation.· How do you utilise your creative flair and imagination?· A variety of exercises that draw on the student's own experience and creative imagination.
· Her fertile and inventive imagination came to her aid.· And like her own fertile imagination, it shelters any and all images that happen to drift into its confines.· Even now no-one seems quite certain whether this was a fact, a half-fact or the product of a fertile imagination.· No one ever turned up such a child, whose existence seems to have been yet another figment of fertile right-wing imaginations.· Shakespeare has the most fertile imagination of all poets and is more than Homer's equal.· Artisans needed more than just fertile imaginations and a soft touch with a trowel to bring their work to life.· They come from Hollywood, they have fertile imaginations.· He is said to have been convivial, widely knowledgeable, with a fertile imagination and a whimsical sense of humour.
· It's only my fevered imagination that keeps me warm.· A solution presents itself: the book will not yield to the hectic temptations, the seductions of the fevered imagination.· The whole idea was crazy, the result of her fevered imagination.· She wanted to see if the reality matched her fevered imagination.
· My choice didn't show a great deal of imagination but at least Carla would know I'd tried.· In dealing with the relationship between words and music the author unfailingly reveals both great experience and great imagination.· Different conditions call for a great deal of imagination on the course, but there are a few basics that always apply.
· The potential applications seemed as boundless as the human imagination.· For an age that put a high premium on human imagination, this was important.· Future possibilities will in principle be limited only by human imagination.· What part precisely did Leonardo play in developing the human imagination?· It unfolds a theory of how human imagination works.· Traditionally within the scope of human imagination only gods had wielded such mighty influence on the affairs of men.· What I believe in is the power of the human imagination.· This exhibits the powers of the human imagination but it is not at all easy to demonstrate in a book of this size.
· But with a little imagination and a flexible approach, it can be fun.· They were a people of deep religious feeling, but they had little imagination.· He was always down to earth and had very little imagination.· Clearly, a little imagination goes a long way.· Their original intentions were to break up the monotony of the London dance scene and inject a little humour and imagination.· The aldermen could learn to use a little imagination and finesse.
· But is there any real evidence that such zodiacs are anything more than the product of an overactive imagination?· Are they products of an overactive imagination, or the just aftermath of a plate full of funny mushrooms?
· Even the constitutional principle itself hardly captured the popular imagination.· The fate of the monastic libraries serves in popular imagination as a classic example of mindless iconoclasm.· These were the fighting heroes of their day, whose exploits lived long in the popular imagination.· The otter has captured popular imagination ever since the classics of Henry Williamson and Gavin Maxwell.· That version suits the authorities, since it plays down an event that has fired the popular imagination.· It had become associated in the popular imagination with something naive, laughable or downright kinky.
· One project that has captured the public imagination is the Trans-Tokyo Bay Highway.· In the intervening 60 years much had changed in the public imagination.
· Her sociological imagination blends ideas from experience and the works of great scholars whose works can be read a hundred times.· The books with the most sociological imagination are those by Addams, Etzioni, and Nisbet.· In a sociological imagination for the local community, information must have no predetermined subordination to any other set of resources.· What should be expanded are the principles of thought in Mills's sociological imagination for political analysis.
· Course Moira always has had a vivid imagination, you have to take what she says with a pinch of salt.· The Yippies were armed with a vivid imagination to match their rhetoric.· I know it seems vivid because my imagination fills in all the bits another person wouldn't understand.· Mark deployed his vivid imagination in a wild-child narrative to create a boy who hunts deer, bears, and birds.· Although he'd never been blessed with a particularly vivid imagination, Charlie saw it all in an instant.· A chicken with too vivid an imagination.· With her vivid imagination, Melissa could visualise the scene and it sickened her.· Her vivid imagination created some one tall and slim, blonde and attractive.
VERB· The notion of lasers in space has captured the imaginations of planners at the Pentagon and the White House.· It was the recently completed football stadium that captured his imagination.· Like Lakoff's book about women and language, it captured the imagination of feminists both inside and outside the academy.· Small enterprises could capture the imaginations and mobilize the energies of young men.· The exhibition reveals Andr Citro n's vivid creativity and ability to capture the public's imagination.· But it was not such language that captured the imagination of the world.· And it is men and women in relation to each other, and in relation to nature, that really captures the imagination of these drawing-room philosophers.· More contemporary figures who captured his imagination included Gandhi and Attaturk.
· It catches people's imagination, and becomes, as Harry wanted, a kind of pictogram to represent the whole range.· The technology has caught the imagination of many.· Now genetics has become the science that catches the collective imagination as does no other.· The Berlin airlift caught the imagination of the world.· Microscopes caught the imagination, as well they might.· Political hacking is starting to catch the imagination of the Left.· At the turn of the century Paris caught people's imagination.· That is one of the reasons why container gardening catches the imagination.
· Commercial speculation rather than the law fired his imagination.· Her exceptional goodness in executing the humblest and most ordinary of tasks fired the imagination of Catholics everywhere.· It could have been Hope's unknowing repudiation of the popular notion of black people which fired my imagination.· The way it was taught did not exactly fire the imagination.· No, the way to get at it is to work from whatever background has fired your imagination.· Walt the Wonder Boy, the little lad who fired the imagination of millions.· But two or three unusual features of last week's cut fired the imagination of New York's conspiracy theorists.· Seeing those lofty settlements atop the sheer rocks fires the imagination.
· City were content to sit back on their lead, and Newcastle lacked the pace or imagination to break them down.· But thus far it lacks the imagination and leadership.· Her play seems to lack imagination and she is manifestly terrified of Keith.· Both Wellington and Harriett lacked imagination but relied instead on keen observation.· Ards lacked imagination and drive against an inexperienced Town side, and had a lucky escape in the first minute.
· The Richardsons weren't sophisticated, didn't leave things to imagination.· The story could become popular only because the outcome was left to our imagination.· Plastics - that here leave little to the imagination - were widely used in fashion.· His creation left nothing to the imagination.· Nothing is left to the imagination.· That way, the lumps and bumps are left to the imagination.· How to express approval can be left to the imagination.· That way they leave things to your imagination.
· Yet since leaving Marcus I had let my imagination blow it all up into a Great Romance.· I would imagine things outside, then I just let my imagination go.· Other than that, Putnam says, cooks should just let their imagination be their guide.· When Coleridge got on one and let his imagination run riot, he came up with Kubla Khan.· He had let his imagination run away with him.· She had to let imagination take over.· Just let your imagination run and try to pick up the underlying message. 2.
· With Game Boys and other computers you don't need to use your imagination.· It needs more than will, it needs the imagination to find a way.· Even where documents are available, historians need a lot of imagination to reconstruct any kind of Carolingian site.· You needed to use imagination to see through it to the ground below.· It often needs the imagination and the company of children to help you to appreciate afresh the bird's dazzling beauty.· Clergy and musicians need to use their imagination as well as their professional skills.
· There was some street detritus which required more imagination than most.· Doing any better than that will require imagination, patience and constant involvement.· To see it requires imagination, and yet it is not itself the product of imagination.· It doesn't require much imagination to understand the pain.· This requires imagination, inventiveness and aesthetic sensitivity informed by historical precedent.· All this requires imagination, patience, considerable linguistic skill, but above all a rigorous respect for the facts.· This style of play, though safe, leaves long putts which require imagination and a very confident touch.
· It can also stir the imagination for every parish Sunday and solemnity and right through Eastertide.· Not much to stir the imagination here.
· An artificial creature made of metal discs and beads may be stretching the imagination a bit.· This is not absolutely necessary but it would stretch your imagination and further clarify the entire research process from beginning to end.· This game will certainly stretch the imagination of D & D gamers.· Now, for a moment I want you to stretch your imagination to the limits.· Like mathematics, it doesn't only stretch the imagination.· It is not Venice but it has warmth, colour, and views such as could stretch the most infertile imagination.
· The people who closed down Punch. Use your imagination.· This would be a well-placed lesson to her in how to use her imagination a bit more.· It is certainly an approach which encourages the lawyer to use imagination in the solution of the problem.· When the information was slow in coming, the announcers were forced to use their imaginations to fill in the details.· This means using your imagination and buying some fairly unusual items.· How can you look at a bunch of stars, so far away, and so incomprehensible, without using your imagination?· Now that you feel more relaxed try an exercise using your imagination.· The aldermen could learn to use a little imagination and finesse.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRY► in somebody’s imaginationPHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES► capture somebody’s imagination/attention etc► catch somebody’s attention/interest/imagination etc► a fevered imagination/mind/brain► a leap of (the) imagination
- His creation left nothing to the imagination.
- Plastics - that here leave little to the imagination - were widely used in fashion.
- How can you look at a bunch of stars, so far away, and so incomprehensible, without using your imagination?
- Of course, Vincent explained to Theo, he could avoid the expense of models and use his imagination.
- This means using your imagination and buying some fairly unusual items.
- This would be a well-placed lesson to her in how to use her imagination a bit more.
- We also need to encourage children to use their imaginations in science lessons.
- When the information was slow in coming, the announcers were forced to use their imaginations to fill in the details.
- With Game Boys and other computers you don't need to use your imagination.
- All that is left to connect us to the past is the imagination.
- My subject was landscape and imagination.
- No, it was just my imagination running riot.
- Puny appeared thoughtful, or was it his imagination?
- The real limit to whatever ingenious notions and ideas we may develop is our own imagination.
- Thoughts are things; imagination is experience.
- Was it his imagination, or could he really feel the beginnings of a headache?
- Yet it was not all imagination.
- The story of a boy raised by monkeys has caught the imagination of millions.
- The production successfully leaves much of the detail to the audience's imagination.
- His creation left nothing to the imagination.
- In this respect Wordsworth does not leave enough to the imagination.
- Plastics - that here leave little to the imagination - were widely used in fashion.
- That way they leave things to your imagination.
- The Crims leave it to your imagination, although they don't on the incongruous rockabilly thumper Dickholder.
- There's nothing wrong with being glamorous and sexy, but leaving something to the imagination is advisable.
- Even now no-one seems quite certain whether this was a fact, a half-fact or the product of a fertile imagination.
- He is said to have been convivial, widely knowledgeable, with a fertile imagination and a whimsical sense of humour.
- These two men actually lived; they weren't figments of some writer's imagination.
- But don't take my word for it; this is not a figment of the journalistic imagination.
- It had vanished as silently as if it had been only a figment of her imagination.
- Nearly three years after work had begun, the dam was still a figment of the imagination.
- Neither one was a figment of his imagination.
- The carpet is a figment of the imagination: an oriental pattern of light and shadow projected on the floor.
- The Ghost of Banquo is more than a figment of Macbeth's imagination: it stands in some way in relation to his conscience.
- The gymslip Lolita is not entirely a figment of the male imagination.
- The ugly rectory is a figment of my imagination, for there was never such a building on Wood Green.
- A small, balding academic sort not given to flights of fancy, Kolodney wasted no words as he made his announcement.
- In their more extravagant flights of fancy the choice thus offered to the voter is extended to cover specific heads of policy.
- Many are flights of imagination and, because of the very nature of the area, subjective.
- Other routines are pure flights of fancy, all the more extraordinary for the very ordinary setting.
- Part of the achievement of the visionary comes from inspiration that arises from considering the highest flights of imagination.
- The legend - the romantic flight of fancy was over.
- There are some strange flights of fancy and there are also some extremely down to earth not to say earthy observations.
- This is not a flight of fancy.
- Raising children isn't easy by any stretch of the imagination.
- All good things but not wildly expensive, not by any stretch of the imagination.
- I am very puzzled as to how either of these two items can be cash flows by any stretch of the imagination.
- It could not by any stretch of the imagination be anything else.
- Management is typically the reason people walk out, but it is not 100 percent by any stretch of the imagination.
- Not that Tiptoe could be called a child, by any stretch of the imagination.
- That is not ` good news' by any stretch of the imagination!
- The program isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination.
- Although he'd never been blessed with a particularly vivid imagination, Charlie saw it all in an instant.
- Course Moira always has had a vivid imagination, you have to take what she says with a pinch of salt.
- Her vivid imagination created some one tall and slim, blonde and attractive.
- Mark deployed his vivid imagination in a wild-child narrative to create a boy who hunts deer, bears, and birds.
- The Yippies were armed with a vivid imagination to match their rhetoric.
- With her vivid imagination, Melissa could visualise the scene and it sickened her.
WORD FAMILYadjectiveimaginable ≠ unimaginableimaginaryimaginative ≠ unimaginativeunimaginednounimaginationimaginingsadverbunimaginablyimaginativelyverbimagine
1[countable, uncountable] the ability to form pictures or ideas in your mind: a storyteller with an incredible imagination It does not take much imagination to understand their grief. With a little imagination, you can find great inexpensive gifts.2be (a figment of) somebody’s imagination to be something that someone imagines, not something that really exists or happens: Did you hear that noise, or was it my imagination? These people do exist; they’re not figments of my imagination.3in somebody’s imagination only existing or happening in someone’s mind, not in real life: For the refugees, home exists only in their imagination.4capture/catch somebody’s imagination to make people feel very interested and excited: American football really captured the imagination of the British public.5leave something to somebody’s imagination to deliberately not describe something because you think someone can guess or imagine it: Mercifully, the writer leaves most of the physical horrors to our imagination.6leave little/nothing to the imagination a)if someone’s clothes leave little or nothing to the imagination, the clothes are very thin or are worn in a way that shows the person’s body: Her black satin dress left nothing to the imagination. b)if something sexual or violent is described in a way that leaves nothing to the imagination, it is described in too much detail7use your imagination spoken used to tell someone that they can easily guess the answer to a question, so you should not need to tell them → not by any stretch of the imagination at stretch2(4)COLLOCATIONSadjectivesa good imagination· She's a lively child, with a good imagination.great imagination· His paintings show great imagination.a vivid/fertile imagination (=an ability to think of a lot of ideas and things that could happen)· She had a fertile imagination and a great sense of humour.· With your vivid imagination, you should write a book.an overactive/fevered imagination (=a mind that imagines strange things that are not real)· These stories are the product of an overactive imagination.the public imagination· The story captured the public imagination.creative imagination· I don't have the creative imagination to be a writer.verbshave (an) imagination· Her poems show that she has a lot of imagination.use your imagination· Musicians need to use their imagination as well as their technical skills.show/display imagination· His latest paintings display a vivid imagination.lack imagination· A lot of today's pop music seems to lack imagination.fire/stimulate somebody's imagination (=make someone use their imagination)· The aim of the exhibition is to stimulate people's imagination.phrasesbe full of imagination· Her stories are full of imagination.a lack of imagination· Their policies show a lack of imagination.let your imagination run wild (also let your imagination run riot British English) (=allow yourself to imagine many strange or wonderful things)· He uses painting as a way of letting his imagination run riot.