imagination

1 the ability to form mental images of things that either are not physically present or have never been conceived or created by others a cartoonist needs a fertile imagination in order to create interesting cartoons on demand Synonyms contrivance, creativity, fancy, fantasy (also phantasy), ideation, imaginativeness, invention, inventiveness, originality Related Words brainstorm, brainstorming, inspiration; fecundity, fertility; ingenuity, resourcefulness; versatility; chimera, daydream, delusion, dream, figment, hallucination, illusion, mind's eye, mirage, phantasm (also fantasm), pipe dream; envisaging, visualization Near Antonyms literality, literalness

2 the skill and imagination to create new things she lacks the imagination to be anything but an imitator of other directors' cinematic styles Synonyms cleverness, creativeness, creativity, imaginativeness, ingeniousness, ingenuity, innovativeness, invention, inventiveness, originalityRelated Words fecundity, fertility, fruitfulness, productiveness, productivity, prolificacy, prolificity, prolificness; capableness, resourcefulness; genius, giftedness, talent; fire, inspiration, museNear Antonyms dryness, dullness (also dulness)