Meaning & use
imaginary
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Meanings
adjectivenot comparable
Existing only in someone's mind and not in the real world.
Grammar: Usually comes before a noun: an imaginary friend, but it can follow a verb: the danger was imaginary.
Patterns
- imaginary something
As a child, she had an imaginary friend named Pip.
The monster under the bed was purely imaginary.
The map showed an imaginary island called Zephyria.
adjectivenot comparablemathematicstechnical
In mathematics, describing a number that gives a negative result when multiplied by itself, built from the square root of negative one.
Grammar: A technical term, used before number or in the phrase imaginary part.
Patterns
- an imaginary number
The square root of negative four is an imaginary number.
Engineers use imaginary components when studying electric currents.
The equation had no real roots, only imaginary ones.
Common combinations
- imaginary friend
- The toddler set a place at the table for her imaginary friend.
- imaginary world
- He wrote stories set in an imaginary world of floating cities.
- imaginary number
- An imaginary number includes the symbol i.
- imaginary line
- The equator is an imaginary line around the Earth.
- purely imaginary
- His fears about the interview turned out to be purely imaginary.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fictional
- Fictional describes characters or events invented for stories, whereas imaginary can also describe fears and private fancies.
- made-up
- Made-up is more casual and often suggests that something was invented, sometimes to deceive.
- unreal
- Unreal is broader and can mean strange or amazing, while imaginary stresses that it exists only in the mind.
- fanciful
- Fanciful suggests playful or elaborate invention, but not necessarily something that someone believes exists.
Opposites
Word family
- imagine verb
- to form a picture in your mind
- imagination noun
- the ability to form ideas of things not present
- imaginative adjective
- showing creative thinking
- imaginable adjective
- able to be pictured in the mind
Commonly confused: imaginary or imaginative? imaginary or imaginable?
imaginary vs imaginative
Imaginative describes a person or work full of creative ideas, whereas imaginary describes something that is not real.
imaginary vs imaginable
Imaginable means possible to picture, as in every excuse imaginable, and has nothing to do with something being unreal.
Practice
Which word fits: The children created an ___ kingdom in the backyard, with rulers who only existed in their game.
Choose one answer.
Imaginary means existing only in the mind, which suits a kingdom that is not real. Imaginative would describe the children's creative style, not the kingdom's lack of reality.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “imaginary”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.