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Imagine vs Idea - What's the difference?

imagine | idea |

As a verb imagine

is .

As a noun idea is

(philosophy) an abstract archetype of a given thing, compared to which real-life examples are seen as imperfect approximations; pure essence, as opposed to actual examples.

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

    idea

    English

    (wikipedia idea)

    Noun

  • (philosophy) An abstract archetype of a given thing, compared to which real-life examples are seen as imperfect approximations; pure essence, as opposed to actual examples.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-10-19, volume=409, issue=8858, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Trouble at the lab , passage=The idea that the same experiments always get the same results, no matter who performs them, is one of the cornerstones of science’s claim to objective truth. If a systematic campaign of replication does not lead to the same results, then either the original research is flawed (as the replicators claim) or the replications are (as many of the original researchers on priming contend). Either way, something is awry.}}
  • (obsolete) The conception of someone or something as representing a perfect example; an ideal.
  • (obsolete) The form or shape of something; a quintessential aspect or characteristic.
  • *, II.6:
  • The remembrance whereof (which yet I beare deepely imprinted in my minde) representing me her visage and Idea so lively and so naturally, doth in some sort reconcile me unto her.
  • An image of an object that is formed in the mind or recalled by the memory.
  • More generally, any result of mental activity; a thought, a notion; a way of thinking.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=3 , passage=Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.}}
  • * 1952 , (Alfred Whitney Griswold)
  • Ideas won't go to jail.
  • A conception in the mind of something to be done; a plan for doing something, an (l).
  • * , chapter=3
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=71, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= End of the peer show , passage=Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.}}
  • A vague or fanciful (l); a feeling or hunch; an impression.
  • (music) A musical theme or melodic subject.
  • Synonyms

    * image

    Descendants

    * Japanese: (aidia)

    Derived terms

    * bad idea * good idea * idea'd * idea man * it seemed like a good idea at the time * idea monger * idea of reference * idea pot * life-idea * memory-idea * mother-idea * no idea * one-idea * received idea * sense-idea * simple idea * the very idea

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----