What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Magical vs Imaginary - What's the difference?

magical | imaginary |

As adjectives the difference between magical and imaginary

is that magical is of or relating to magic while imaginary is existing only in the imagination.

As a noun imaginary is

imagination; fancy.

magical

English

Alternative forms

* magicall (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Of or relating to magic.
  • Enchanting.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=He stood transfixed before the unaccustomed view of London at night time, a vast panorama which reminded him […] of some wood engravings far off and magical , in a printshop in his childhood.}}
    The fireworks created a magical atmosphere in that beautiful summer night.

    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.