imaginary
Syllables: im·a·gin·a·ryUK/ɪˈmæd͡ʒɪnəɹi//ɪˈmæd͡ʒɪˌn(ɛ)ɹi/
imaginary adjective: existing only in the imagination.
Adjective
imaginary (comparative more imaginary, superlative most imaginary)
- Existing only in the imagination.
- imaginary friend
- Unicorns are imaginary.
- Synonyms:
- all in one's head
- Relating or belonging to the imagination.
- Fiction refers to imaginary stories.2003, Tom Conklin, Comprehension Cliffhanger Stories, page 31
- Having no real part; that part of a complex number which is a multiple of √ (called imaginary unit).
Noun
imaginary (plural imaginaries)
- Imagination; fancy.
- By then too Mozart's opera, from Da Ponte's libretto, had made Figaro a stock character in the European imaginary and set the whole Continent whistling Mozartian airs and chuckling at Figaresque humour.2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 324
- An imaginary number.
- The set of values, institutions, laws, and symbols common to a particular social group and the corresponding society through which people imagine their social whole.
- The sensory media are sensuous materials which prolong our bodily life into the surrounding world, and hence the media are imaginaries. These perceptually penetrated materials are " imaginaries " because they operate here in our living body […].1978, John Derrickson McCurdy, Visionary Appropriation, page 145
- For example, colonial motifs of many kinds became increasingly central to the British national imaginary from the mid-nineteenth century, while the imaginative significance of 'the soldier' has long been derived from, and helped to sustain, the linkage between national and military imaginaries.1994, Graham Dawson, Soldier Heroes: British Adventure, Empire, and the Imagining ..., page 51
imaginary meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
imaginary in Hindi
- existing in the imagination
- काल्पनिक kālpanik
imaginary in Tamil
- existing in the imagination
- கற்பனையனான kaṟpaṉaiyaṉāṉa, கற்பனையானது kaṟpaṉaiyāṉatu
- non-real part of a complex number
- கற்பனை kaṟpaṉai
imaginary in Marathi
- existing in the imagination
- काल्पनिक kālpanik
imaginary in Urdu
- فرضی, غیرحقیقی, خیالی
More languagesFewer languages
- imaginary in Bengali
- কাল্পনিক kalponik
- imaginary in Telugu
- ఊహాత్మకమైనది, ఊహాత్మకమైనవి, ఊహాత్మక
- imaginary in Malayalam
- സാങ്കൽപ്പിക sāṅkalppika
- imaginary in Kannada
- ನನಸಲ್ಲದ, ನೆನಸು
- imaginary in Punjabi
- ਖਿਆਲੀ khiālī
- imaginary in Gujarati
- કાલ્પનિક kālpanik
- imaginary in Nepali
- काल्पनिक
- imaginary in Arabic
- خِيَّالِيّ ḵiyyāliyy
- imaginary in Indonesian
- khayalan, khayal, imajiner
- imaginary in Persian
- خیالی xiyâli
- imaginary in Thai
- จินตภาพ jin-dtà-pâap
Examples of imaginary in a sentence
- She's a kid. It's normal for her to have imaginary friends.
- The poem re-enchants the bull by setting imaginary walls and thresholds around it.
- He came to SF literature a confirmed technophile, and nothing made him happier than to read a manuscript thick with imaginary gizmos and whatzits.
Synonyms of imaginary
- all in one's head
Forms of imaginary
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more imaginary |
| superlative | most imaginary |
| Noun | |
| plural | imaginaries |
Origin of imaginary
From Middle English ymaginarie, ymagynary, from Latin imāginārius (“relating to images, fancied”), from imāgō, equivalent to imagine + -ary. The mathematical sense derives from René Descartes's use (of the French imaginaire) in 1637, La Geometrie, to ridicule the notion of regarding non-real roots of polynomials as numbers. Although Descartes' usage was derogatory, the designation stuck even after the concept gained acceptance in the 18th century.
Words formed from imaginary
- imaginary axis
- imaginary friend
- imaginary geometry
- imaginary lat syndrome
- imaginary museum
- imaginary number
- imaginary part
- imaginary time
- imaginary unit
- purely imaginary → purely imaginary number
- quater-imaginary
- imaginarily
- imaginariness
- imaginarity
- nonimaginary
- unimaginary
Phrases with imaginary
Questions about imaginary
- What does imaginary mean?
- Imaginary means existing only in the imagination.
- What is imaginary in Hindi?
- Imaginary in Hindi is काल्पनिक (kālpanik). See Imaginary meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is imaginary?
- Imaginary can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce imaginary?
- Imaginary is pronounced /ɪˈmæd͡ʒɪnəɹi/ (UK).
Words near imaginary in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: imaginary (page history and authors); imaginary (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); imaginary (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); imaginary (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਖਿਆਲੀ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); imaginary (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-imaginary.ogg.
Cite this entry: “imaginary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/imaginary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.