imaginationnoun
uk/ɪˌmædʒ.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/us/ɪˌmædʒ.əˈneɪ.ʃən/B1 [ C or U ] the ability to form pictures in the mind:
My younger son has a very vivid (= active) imagination.
I can never make up stories - I have absolutely no imagination.
For some reason the story captured/caught the imagination of the public (= made them very interested).
It couldn't by any stretch of the imagination be described as a (= it is certainly not a) beautiful city.
There's a sex scene in the film which apparently leaves nothing to the imagination (= shows sexual parts of the body very clearly).
[ U ] something that you think exists or is true, although in fact it is not real or true:
Was she paying him a lot of attention or was it just my imagination?
Is it my imagination or is David behaving strangely at the moment?
B1 [ U ] the ability to think of new ideas:
It's a job that needs someone with a bit of imagination.
More examples
- Was it just my imagination or did I hear John's voice in the other room?
- He's one of those people with a very vivid imagination - every time he hears a noise he's convinced it's someone breaking in.
- The American drive to land a man on the Moon captured the imagination of the whole world.
- Her imagination was kindled by the exciting stories her grandmother told her.
- One of poetry's functions is to somehow unlock the imagination.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Imagining and conceiving
- a reach of the imagination idiom
- assume
- blue-sky
- conceivable
- conceive
- conceptualize
- dream
- feel
- fertile
- fertility
- foundation
- mind
- picture
- presumption
- put
- put yourself in sb's place/position/shoes idiom
- reckon
- riot
- run riot idiom
- suspicion
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Dreaming