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Imaginary vs Fictitious - What's the difference?

imaginary | fictitious | Synonyms |

Fictitious is a antonym of imaginary.

Fictitious is a synonym of imaginary.



As adjectives the difference between imaginary and fictitious

is that imaginary is existing only in the imagination while fictitious is not real; invented; contrived.

As a noun imaginary

is imagination; fancy.

imaginary

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • existing only in the imagination
  • * Addison
  • Wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer / Imaginary ills and fancied tortures?
  • (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

    * imaginarily * imaginariness

    Noun

    (imaginaries)
  • Imagination; fancy.
  • * 2002 , , 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.
  • (mathematics) An imaginary quantity.
  • fictitious

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Not real; invented; contrived.
  • St. Mary Mead is a fictitious village from the books of Agatha Christie.

    Synonyms

    * imaginary, invented, contrived, fictive