Imagined

How to spell imagined

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce imagined

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does imagined mean?

1. verbFormed a mental picture of something, or supposed that something was the case.
2. adjectiveExisting only in the mind; not real.

Imagined in a sentence

• verb

  She imagined a quiet retirement by the sea before the bills changed her plans.

• adjective

  The doctor reassured her that the symptoms were not imagined but very real.

• verb

  He imagined the meeting would be short, but it ran for three hours.

• adjective

  His imagined rivals at work never actually intended him any harm.

Where does imagined come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past form of 'imagine', which English took from the Old French verb 'imaginer' in the late 1300s. That French word came directly from the Latin 'imaginari', meaning 'to picture to oneself' or 'to form a mental image'. The Latin verb was built on the noun 'imago', meaning 'image, likeness, or copy', the same root that gives us 'image', 'imagery', and 'magic-free' words like 'imaginary'. The single 'g' followed by 'i' is what produces the soft sound, and keeping the spelling close to 'image' is the easiest way to remember there is no extra letter hiding inside it. Over the centuries the sense broadened from simply picturing something in the mind to also meaning 'to suppose or assume', which is why we say someone imagined a noise that was not really there.

How the word is built

• imagin- (from Latin imaginari: to picture)
• -ed (past tense / past participle)