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Imply vs Imagine - What's the difference?

imply | imagine | Related terms |

Imply is a related term of imagine.


As verbs the difference between imply and imagine

is that imply is (of a proposition) to have as a necessary consequence while imagine is .

imply

English

Verb

(en-verb)
  • (of a proposition) to have as a necessary consequence
  • The proposition that "all dogs are mammals" implies that my dog is a mammal
  • (of a person) to suggest by logical inference
  • When I state that your dog is brown, I am not implying that all dogs are brown
  • (of a person or proposition) to hint; to insinuate; to suggest tacitly and avoid a direct statement
  • What do you mean "we need to be more careful with hygiene"? Are you implying that I don't wash my hands?
  • (archaic) to enfold, entangle.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.iv:
  • And in his bosome secretly there lay / An hatefull Snake, the which his taile vptyes / In many folds, and mortall sting implyes .

    Usage notes

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

    Synonyms

    * (to have as a necessary consequence) entail * (to suggest tacitly) allude, hint, insinuate, suggest

    See also

    * connotation * entail

    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