image

noun im·age \ ˈi-mij \

|Updated on: 18 Jun 2018

Definition of image

1 : a reproduction or imitation of the form of a person or thing; especially : an imitation in solid form : statue

2 a : the optical counterpart of an object produced by an optical device (such as a lens or mirror) or an electronic device

b : a visual representation of something: such as

(1) : a likeness of an object produced on a photographic material

(2) : a picture produced on an electronic display (such as a television or computer screen)

3 a : exact likeness : semblance

God created man in his own image
—Genesis 1:27 (Revised Standard Version)

b : a person strikingly like another person

she is the image of her mother

4 a : a tangible or visible representation : incarnation

the image of filial devotion

b archaic : an illusory form : apparition

5 a (1) : a mental picture or impression of something

had a negative body image of herself

(2) : a mental conception held in common by members of a group and symbolic of a basic attitude and orientation

a disorderly courtroom can seriously tarnish a community's image of justice
—Herbert Brownell

b : idea, concept

6 : a vivid or graphic representation or description

7 : figure of speech

8 : a popular conception (as of a person, institution, or nation) projected especially through the mass media

promoting a corporate image of brotherly love and concern
—R. C. Buck

9 : a set of values given by a mathematical function (such as a homomorphism) that corresponds to a particular subset of the domain

See image defined for English-language learners

See image defined for kids

Examples of image in a Sentence

She studied her image in the mirror.
The kids sat staring at the images on the TV screen.
painters capturing images of war
black-and-white images of the city
His poem evokes images of the sea and warm summer days.
He is trying hard to improve his image.
The law suit has negatively affected the company's public image.
a politician who cares more about image than about telling the truth

Recent Examples of image from the Web

Find More Discussions Share Share this discussion on Twitter Facebook Sort by Best Best Newest Oldest Start the discussion… in this conversation ⬇ Drag and drop your images here to upload them.

— seija rankin, EW.com, "See the most important LGBTQ pop culture moments in under 2 minutes," 14 June 2018
But a wealthy heir and superhero appreciator Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk) and his tech savvy sister Evelyn (Catherine Keener) have a plan to rehabilitate their image.

— lindsey bahr, Detroit Free Press, "Review: ‘Incredibles 2’ arrives in a brave new world," 14 June 2018
For Canadians — who don’t totally reject their stereotyped image as self-effacing and nice — the eruption seemed completely at odds with their own national temperament.

— Washington Post, "Canada-US relations at a low after Trudeau-Trump trade tiff," 14 June 2018
There’s the normal struggling with your self-image that happens as a teenager, and then there’s an extreme level of it where there’s this perception that nobody likes you.

— katie heaney, The Cut, "My Life With Borderline Personality Disorder," 13 June 2018
Sheperd stars in her own campaign images, modeling the jeans topless as well as with casual shirts.

— brittany talarico, PEOPLE.com, "Stephanie Shepherd's 'Little Black Jean' Design for J Brand Already Has a Wait List," 13 June 2018
It was probably created by tracing her image cast by candlelight.

— edward rothstein, WSJ, "‘Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now’ Review: Tracing the Shadows of Past and Present," 13 June 2018
Its image was stodgy and traditional, not cutting-edge.

— andrew selee, Smithsonian, "How Guadalajara Reinvented Itself as a Technology Hub," 13 June 2018
But Trump's preference for populist candidates like Corey Stewart, the Confederate-statue-supporting Republican who won the GOP nomination for Senate in Virginia on Tuesday, increasingly seems to be remaking the GOP, if not Congress, in his image.

— lisa mascaro and meg kinnard, chicagotribune.com, "'Trump enough?': Primary election lesson for Republicans: Don't cross the president," 13 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'image.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of image

Middle English, "effigy, figure, mental impression of something observed, reflection, resemblance," borrowed from Anglo-French, shortened from imagene, borrowed from Latin imāgin-, imāgō "representation, reflection, apparition, semblance, copy, visible form," from imā- (probably the stem of an otherwise unattested verb *imārī with the same base as imitārī "to follow as a pattern, copy") + -gin-, -gō, denominal or deverbal noun suffix — more at imitate

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 13th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

image Synonyms

Synonyms

abstraction, cogitation, concept, conception, idea, impression, intellection, mind's eye, notion, picture, thought;

Near Antonyms

actuality, fact, reality;

preconception, prejudice, prepossession;

delusion, hallucination, illusion, phantasm (also fantasm);

caprice, conceit, fancy, vagary, whim;

cognition, observation, perception, reflection;

assumption, belief, conclusion, conviction;

conjecture, guess, hunch, hypothesis, speculation, supposition, surmise, theory;

brainchild, brainstorm, brain wave, inspiration;

Other Pictures (on film) Terms

daguerreotype, emulsion, fill, sepia, still, stop

image

verb

Definition of image

imaged; imaging

transitive verb

1 : to call up a mental picture of : imagine

2 : to describe or portray in language especially in a vivid manner

3 a : to create a representation of; also : to form an image of

imaged Jupiter's rings

image the bone using X-rays

b : to represent symbolically

4 a : reflect, mirror

b : to make appear : project

—

imager

play \ˈi-mi-jər\ noun

Examples of image in a Sentence

in the painting Sacagawea is imaged as an intrepid woman pointing the way for Lewis and Clark
the brochure images a vacation at the resort in language that makes you want to make a reservation this instant

Recent Examples of image from the Web

The Republican newspaper reports that among those at the Springfield home early Friday was a ground-penetrating radar imaging company.

— Fox News, "Police return to Massachusetts home where 3 bodies found," 1 June 2018
These cyclones seem remarkably stable over the time that Juno has imaged them in the visible and infrared.

— andrew coates, Newsweek, "NASA Juno Unlocks Secrets of Jupiter's Mega Cyclone Clusters," 8 Mar. 2018
Over thousands of years, this creates the kind of dunes imaged by New Horizons.

— avery thompson, Popular Mechanics, "Science Explains How Dunes Form on Pluto, Where There Is Essentially No Wind," 31 May 2018
Technology will be key to the efforts: Ali Rezai, the Rockefeller Chair of Neuroscience at WVU says a number of sensors and imaging technologies will be used to measure everything from sleep cycles to pain.

— erika fry, Fortune, "Can West Virginia Solve America's Healthcare Problems?," 20 Mar. 2018
If there's enough plastic in one area, scientists armed with imaging technology can identify and measure plastic based on those light signatures.

— meghan bartels, Newsweek, "There's So Much Plastic in the Oceans Scientists Want to Study it From Space," 20 Mar. 2018
Created in the mid- to late 1970s, these pieces are fascinating examples of a then-nascent 3D imaging technology, a predecessor to our various virtual environments.

— sharon mizota, latimes.com, "Sweat lodge, Audre Lorde, magical holograms: Three stellar art shows that pull you to another place," 10 Mar. 2018
But with the help of imaging software, researchers were recently able to decode the hidden pages, as Nina Siegal reports for the New York Times.

— brigit katz, Smithsonian, "Researchers Decipher Two Hidden Pages of Anne Frank’s Diary," 17 May 2018
In Newsom's ad, images flash across the screen of Cox next to Trump and Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Association.

— angela hart, sacbee, "Gavin Newsom's latest ad attacking Republican on gun issue is mostly accurate | The Sacramento Bee," 11 May 2018

Origin and Etymology of image

Middle English imagen, in part derivative of image ¹image, in part borrowed from Middle French ymagier "to imagine," derivative of image

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

image Synonyms

Synonyms

delineate, depict, describe, draw, limn, paint, picture, portray, render, set out, sketch;

Near Antonyms

color, distort, falsify, garble, misdescribe, misrepresent, misstate, pervert, twist, warp;

demonstrate, illustrate;

narrate, recite, recount, rehearse, relate, report, tell;

display, exhibit, show;

hint, suggest;

draft, outline, silhouette, trace, vignette;

summarize, sum up, touch off;

redescribe, reimage;

IMAGE Defined for English Language Learners

image

noun

Definition of image for English Language Learners

: a picture that is produced by a camera, artist, mirror, etc.
: a mental picture : the thought of how something looks or might look
: the idea that people have about someone or something

IMAGE Defined for Kids

image

noun im·age \ ˈi-mij \

Definition of image for Students

1 : a picture or reflection of something produced by a device (as a mirror or lens)

We watched the images on the screen.

2 : someone who looks very much like another

She is the image of her mother.

3 : the thought of how something looks

An image appeared in his head of his parents hugging each other and crying.
—Louis Sachar, Holes

4 : a representation (as a picture or statue) of something

5 : an idea of what someone or something is like

He has an image as a troublemaker.

Medical Dictionary

image

noun im·age \ ˈim-ij \

medical Definition of image

1 a : the optical counterpart of an object produced by an optical device (as a lens or mirror) or an electronic device — see real image, virtual image

b : a likeness of an object produced on a photographic material

2 : a mental picture or impression of something

had a negative body image of herself

: as

a (1) : a mental conception held in common by members of a group and symbolic of a basic attitude and orientation

the compassionate small-town family doctor, an image that the AMA deeply admires
—Current Biography

(2) : an idealized conception of a person and especially a parent that is formed by an infant or child, is retained in the unconscious, and influences behavior in later life

the overwhelming influence of the mother image
—John Messenger

— called also imago

b : the memory of a perception in psychology that is modified by subsequent experience; also : the representation of the source of a stimulus on a receptor mechanism