fancy suggests an imagining often unrestrained by reality but spurred by desires.
fancied himself a super athlete
realize stresses a grasping of the significance of what is conceived or imagined.
realized the enormity of the task ahead
envisage and envision imply a conceiving or imagining that is especially clear or detailed.
envisaged a totally computerized operation
envisioned a cure for the disease
Examples of imagine in a Sentence
a writer who has imagined an entire world of amazing creatures
He asked us to imagine a world without poverty or war.
It's hard for me to imagine having children.
He was imagining all sorts of terrible things happening.
“What was that sound? I think there's someone in the house!” “Oh, you're just imagining things.”
I imagine it will snow at some point today.
It's difficult to imagine that these changes will really be effective.
The company will do better next year, I imagine.
It was worse than they had imagined.
Recent Examples on the WebThat said viewers follow format and imagine watching Law and Order and one of the detectives goes off and starts their own detective agency.—Degen Pener, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Mar. 2024 Just imagine a world where the journey from Los Angeles to Tokyo takes less than two hours.—Sassie Duggleby, Fortune, 15 Mar. 2024 In 2024, our definition of literary greatness is wider, deeper, and weirder than DeForest likely could have imagined.—The Atlantic, 14 Mar. 2024 Von Furstenberg, a designer just as iconic as her signature wrap dress, imagined the collection alongside her granddaughter and cochairman Talita von Furstenberg, pulling heavily on the label’s archives.—Jake Henry Smith, Glamour, 13 Mar. 2024 Years later when a shred of aircraft aluminum and the rubber heel from a woman’s shoe were found on an island 400 miles from Earhart’s destination, she was imagined to have been a castaway.—Thomas Curwen, Los Angeles Times, 13 Mar. 2024 The writer has racked up 960K followers on Instagram for cracking them up with satirical captions imagining the inner monologue of young Prince George, son of Prince William and Duchess Kate Middleton.—Kaitlin Stevens, Peoplemag, 4 Mar. 2024 Sports betting, which has grown bigger than almost anyone could have imagined in 2018, would grow bigger still than almost anyone can imagine now.—Jacob Stern, The Atlantic, 2 Mar. 2024 In the contemporary fashion climate, emerging brands that create new products from upcycled materials are nothing new (because imagine the irony in that); however, Ellen Hodakova Larsson’s intensity of approach and technique sets her interestingly apart.—Luke Leitch, Vogue, 2 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'imagine.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Middle English ymagynen, borrowed from Anglo-French ymaginer, borrowed from Latin imāginārī, verbal derivative of imāgin-, imāgō "representation, semblance, image entry 1"
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