Reading Theme:
Imagination: Definition, Usage & Examples (2 meaning)
Meaning 1：form mental images (imagination)
imagination
/ɪˌmædʒ.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/
n.
The power to create pictures, ideas, or stories in your mind that are not real.
form mental images
➕
/fɔːrm ˈmɛntl ˈɪmɪdʒɪz/
n.
The ability to generate ideas, pictures, or stories in the mind that are not based on reality.
📘 Details & Usage
📖 Root Explanation
From Latin 'imaginatio', meaning 'the act of imagining', from 'imaginari' (to imagine).
💡 Mnemonic
Imagine a nation – that's imagination!
📖 Example
The children's picture book author has a wonderful imagination, creating friendly monsters who live in a world made of candy clouds.
The author of children's books has a great imagination, inventing friendly monsters in a candy cloud world.
🔗 Collocations
vivid imagination – a very clear and strong ability to imagine
creative imagination – imagination used for innovative thinking
capture the imagination – to fascinate or inspire someone's mind
🔄 Synonyms
creativity (n.) – the ability to produce original and unusual ideas
inventiveness (n.) – the quality of being able to create or design new things
vision (n.) – the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination
🚫 Antonyms
🌱 Derivatives
imaginative (adj.) – having or showing creativity or inventiveness
imagine (v.) – to form a mental image or concept of something
📖 Cultural Story
Originates from Latin 'imaginatio', associated with creativity in Western art and philosophy.
Meaning 2：mental fabrication (imagination)
imagination
/ɪˌmædʒ.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/
n.
Something that you imagine or picture in your mind, which is not real.
mental fabrication
➕
/ˈmɛntl ˌfæbrɪˈkeɪʃən/
n.
A product of the mind that is perceived but not based on actual reality.
📘 Details & Usage
📖 Example
I thought I heard a noise in the dark basement, but it was just my imagination.
I believed I heard a sound in the dark basement, but it was merely a product of my mind.
🔗 Collocations
play tricks on one's imagination – to cause someone to imagine things that are not real
figment of imagination – something that is imagined and not real
🔄 Synonyms
🚫 Antonyms
reality (n.) – the true situation that exists
🌱 Derivatives
imaginative (adj.) – having or showing creativity or inventiveness
imagine (v.) – to form a mental image or concept of something
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