- existing only in the imagination; fanciful; unreal
- Math. designating or of the square root of a negative quantity, or of a complex number that is not real
Origin of imaginary
Classical Latin imaginarius
A little girl playing an imaginary game.
- An example of something imaginary is an invisible friend.
- An example of something imaginary is the square root of negative 16.
The definition of imaginary is not real or existing only in the mind, or a square root of a negative number.
YourDictionary definition and usage example. Copyright © 2018 by LoveToKnow Corp
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"imaginary." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Imaginary>.
APA Style
imaginary. (n.d.). Retrieved February 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Imaginary
imaginary
Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"imaginary." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Imaginary>.
APA Style
imaginary. (n.d.). Retrieved February 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Imaginary
imaginary
adjective
- Having existence only in the imagination; unreal.
- Mathematics a. Of or being the coefficient of the imaginary unit in a complex number.b. Of, involving, or being an imaginary number.c. Involving only a complex number of which the real part is zero.
noun
pl. i·mag·i·nar·ies MathematicsAn imaginary number.
Related Forms:
- i·mag′i·nar′i·ly
adverb
- i·mag′i·nar′i·ness
noun
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"imaginary." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Imaginary>.
APA Style
imaginary. (n.d.). Retrieved February 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Imaginary
Adjective
(comparative more imaginary, superlative most imaginary)
- existing only in the imagination
- (mathematics) of a number, having no real part; that part of a complex number which is a multiple of the square root of -1.
Noun
(plural imaginaries)
- Imagination; fancy. [from 16th c.]
- (mathematics) An imaginary quantity. [from 18th c.]
Origin
From Middle French imaginaire, from Latin imāginārius (“relating to images, fancied”), from imāgo.
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"imaginary." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Imaginary>.
APA Style
imaginary. (n.d.). Retrieved February 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Imaginary
Sentence Examples
- He paused at the door and mimed a jump shot at an imaginary hoop.
- It is an imaginary history of the patriarchs and their descendants.
- Brinkley's imaginary star-parallaxes (Phil.
- I can get into enough trouble without people squeezing imaginary insults out of my words.
- Such a mass of imaginary matter as we are now considering may be compared to a collection of heavy particles held in position relatively to one another by a system of light spiral springs, one spring being supposed to connect each pair of adjacent particles.
» more...
WORDS NEAR imaginary IN THE DICTIONARY
- imaginary
- imaginant
- imaginaries
- imaginarily