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Webster 1913 Edition


Imaginary

Im-ag′i-na-ry

,
Adj.
[L.
imaginarius
: cf. F.
imaginaire
.]
Existing only in imagination or fancy; not real; fancied; visionary; ideal.
Wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer
Imaginary
ills and fancied tortures?
Addison.
Syn. – Ideal; fanciful; chimerical; visionary; fancied; unreal; illusive.

Im-ag′i-na-ry

,
Noun.
(Alg.)
An imaginary expression or quantity.

Webster 1828 Edition


Imaginary

IMAG'INARY

,
Adj.
Existing only in imagination or fancy; visionary; fancied; not real.
Imaginary ills and fancied tortures.

Definition 2024


imaginary

imaginary

English

Adjective

imaginary (comparative more imaginary, superlative most imaginary)

  1. existing only in the imagination.
    She isn't real, she's imaginary.
    • Addison
      Wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer / Imaginary ills and fancied tortures?
  2. (mathematics) of a number, having no real part; that part of a complex number which is a multiple of the square root of -1.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

imaginary (plural imaginaries)

  1. Imagination; fancy. [from 16th c.]
    • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 324:
      By then too Mozart's opera, from Da Ponte's libretto, had made Figaro a stock character in the European imaginary and set the whole Continent whistling Mozartian airs and chuckling at Figaresque humour.
  2. (mathematics) An imaginary quantity. [from 18th c.]