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Depict vs Imagine - What's the difference?

depict | imagine |

As verbs the difference between depict and imagine

is that depict is to render a representation of something, using words, sounds, images, or other means while imagine is .

As an adjective depict

is (obsolete) depicted.

depict

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To render a representation of something, using words, sounds, images, or other means.
  • * 1984 , Lawrence Starr, "Toward a Reevaluation of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess," American Music , vol. 2, no. 2, p. 27,
  • The well-known words depict a woman seeking sanctuary in a love relationship form a brutal, rapacious man.
  • * 1987 , Niall O'Loughlin, "Music Reviews: 20th-century guitar," The Musical Times , vol. 128, no. 1734, p. 443,
  • Here the music depicts the delicate pattern of ice on windows.
  • * 1994 , E. Pennisi, "Breathe (xenon) deeply to see lungs clearly," Science News , vol. 146, no. 5, p. 70 (caption),
  • False-color computer images depict lungs removed from a mouse.

    Usage notes

    * The subjects of the verb include words, music and images.

    Synonyms

    * portray, supply, figure, express, exhibit, register, show, return, establish, shew, deliver, present, read, indicate, evidence, point, record, testify, fancy, picture, translate, visualize, usher, give, envision, turn in, designate, limn, show up, render, evince, provide, prove, image, yield, demonstrate, fork out, draw, visualise, generate, describe, interpret, project, submit

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Depicted.
  • (Lydgate)

    imagine

    English

    Verb

  • To form a mental image of something; to envision or create something in one's mind.
  • * Shakespeare
  • In the night, imagining some fear, / How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author=(Jonathan Freedland)
  • , volume=189, issue=1, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Obama's once hip brand is now tainted , passage=Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined . Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.}}
  • To believe in something created by one's own mind.
  • To assume.
  • To conjecture or guess.
  • To use one's imagination.
  • (obsolete) To contrive in purpose; to scheme; to devise.
  • * Bible, Psalms lxii. 3
  • How long will ye imagine mischief against a man?

    Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . See

    Synonyms

    * (l)

    Derived terms

    * imaginable * imaginal * imaginary * imagination * imaginative