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Imagination vs Whimsy - What's the difference?

imagination | whimsy | Related terms |

Imagination is a related term of whimsy.


As nouns the difference between imagination and whimsy

is that imagination is imagination (image-making power of the mind) while whimsy is a quaint and fanciful idea a whim playfully odd behaviour.

As a verb whimsy is

to fill with whimsies or whims; to make fantastic; to craze.

imagination

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The image-making power of the mind; the act of creating or reproducing ideally an object not previously perceived; the ability to create such images.
    • Imagination is one of the most advanced human faculties.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1913, author=
    • , title=Lord Stranleigh Abroad , chapter=5 citation , passage=She removed Stranleigh’s coat with a dexterity that aroused his imagination .}}
  • Particularly, construction of false images; fantasizing.
    • You think someone's been following you? That's just your imagination .
  • Creativity; resourcefulness.
    • His imagination makes him a valuable team member.
  • A mental image formed by the action of the imagination as a faculty; a conception; a notion; an imagining; something imagined.
  • * 1597 , Francis Bacon, "Of Youth and Age", Essays :
    • And yet the invention of young men, is more lively than that of old; and imaginations stream into their minds better, and, as it were, more divinely.

    Synonyms

    * (the representative power) creativity, fancy, imaginativeness, invention, inventiveness

    External links

    * (wikipedia "imagination") ----

    whimsy

    English

    Alternative forms

    * whimsey

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A quaint and fanciful idea. A whim. Playfully odd behaviour.
    • The whimsies of poets and painters. — Ray.
    Men's folly, whimsies , and inconstancy. — Swift.
    Mistaking the whimseys of a feverish brain for the calm revelation of truth. — Bancroft.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 27 , author=Nathan Rabin , title=TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992) , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=It’s a lovely sequence cut too short because the show seems afraid to give itself over to romance and whimsy and wistfulness when it has wedgie jokes to deliver. }}
  • An impulsive, illogical or capricious character.
  • (mining) A whim.

    • Verb

  • To fill with whimsies or whims; to make fantastic; to craze.
  • * J. Fletcher
    • To have a man's brain whimsied with his wealth.