Imagines

How to spell imagines

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce imagines

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does imagines mean?

1. verbForms a mental picture of something, or supposes something to be the case.

Imagines in a sentence

• She often imagines a quieter life away from the city.

• He imagines every possible outcome before he signs a contract.

Where does imagines come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the third-person singular form of the verb 'imagine', which English took from the Old French 'imaginer' in the 1300s, itself descended from the Latin verb 'imaginari', meaning 'to form a picture in the mind' or 'to fancy'. That Latin verb was built directly on the noun 'imago', which literally meant an image, likeness, or copy, the same root that gives us the modern words 'image' and 'imagination'. The 'g' followed by 'i' softened over time so that the modern word sounds like a 'j', yet the spelling preserves the older 'gin' from imago, which is why writers must remember it is 'imagin-', not 'imadgin-'. The single 'm' and single 'g' are the quiet traps here, since the word looks as if it might want a doubled letter. Across centuries the meaning broadened from simply picturing something to supposing, guessing, or even wrongly believing something to be true.

How the word is built

• imagin- (from Latin imago: image, likeness)
• -e (verb ending)
• -s (third-person singular)