imagination
[noun]
Synonyms:
- creativity, enterprise, ingenuity, invention, inventiveness, originality, resourcefulness, vision
- unreality, illusion, supposition

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Contrasted words: literalness, matter-of-factness, prosaism, unimaginativeness
Related Words: creativity, inspiration, invention, inventiveness, visualization

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

i‧ma‧gi‧na‧tion S3 W3 /ɪˌmædʒəˈneɪʃən, ɪˌmædʒɪˈneɪʃən/ noun
[Word Family: adjective: imaginable ≠ unimaginable, imaginary, imaginative ≠ unimaginative, unimagined; noun: imagination, imaginings; adverb: unimaginably, imaginatively; verb: imagine]

1. [uncountable and countable] 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.

2. be (a figment of) sb’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.

3. in sb’s imagination only existing or happening in someone’s mind, not in real life:
For the refugees, home exists only in their imagination.

4. capture/catch sb’s imagination to make people feel very interested and excited:
American football really captured the imagination of the British public.

5. leave something to sb’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.

6. leave 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 detail

7. use 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)

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

imagination
noun
ADJ. great | active, creative, fertile, vivid | fevered, overactive, overheated It's just a product of your fevered imagination!
collective, popular, public a popular hero who inspired the collective imagination
visual I was no good at art?I have a very poor visual imagination.
historical, literary It requires a strong effort of historical imagination to understand the Roman attitude to death.
human the powers of the human imagination
VERB + IMAGINATION have | show | lack Today's pop music lacks imagination.
require, take It does not take great imagination to guess what happened next.
use I haven't got a picture of this so you'll just have to use your imagination.
capture, captivate, catch, excite, fire, inspire, seize, stimulate, stir Victorian writers fired the popular imagination with their tales of adventure.
grip, hold Dinosaurs caught and have held the imagination of us all because they seem like dragons.
stretch, tax | defy The scale of the disaster defied imagination (= was greater than you could imagine).
leave sth to As for their reaction, I'll leave that to your imagination!
IMAGINATION + VERB conjure sth up His imagination conjured up a vision of the normal family life he had never had.
run away with you, run riot/wild
PREP. beyond (your) ~ misery that is beyond most people's imagination
in the/your ~ Nobody hates you?it's all in your imagination!
with/without ~ He was totally without imagination.
PHRASES a lack of imagination, a figment/product of sb's imagination The figure vanished as silently as if it had simply been a figment of her imagination.
not by any/by no stretch of the imagination Not by any stretch of the imagination could she be called beautiful (= she was definitely not beautiful in any way). | only your imagination Is it only my imagination or have you lost weight?
with a little imagination With a little imagination you can create a delicious meal from yesterday's leftovers.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

imagination

a 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.
have (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.
be 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.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲