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Imaginary vs Illusion - What's the difference?

imaginary | illusion |

As nouns the difference between imaginary and illusion

is that imaginary is imagination; fancy while illusion is .

As an adjective imaginary

is existing only in the imagination.

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.
  • illusion

    Noun

  • (countable) Anything that seems to be something that it is not.
  • We saw what looked like a tiger among the trees, but it was an illusion caused by the shadows of the branches.
    Using artificial additives, scientists can create the illusion of fruit flavours in food.
  • * 2002 , (The Flaming Lips),
  • You realize the sun don't go down it's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round.
  • (countable) A misapprehension; a belief in something that is in fact not true.
  • Jane has this illusion that John is in love with her.
  • (countable) A magician’s trick.
  • (uncountable) The state of being deceived or misled.
  • Synonyms

    * (the state of being deceived or misled) misapprehension

    Derived terms

    * illusionist * illusory * optical illusion * under the illusion that

    See also

    * mirage ----