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Reality vs Imagination - What's the difference?

reality | imagination |

As nouns the difference between reality and imagination

is that reality is the state of being actual or real while imagination is imagination (image-making power of the mind).

reality

English

Noun

(en-noun)
  • The state of being actual or real.
  • :
  • *(Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
  • *:A man fancies that he understands a critic, when in reality he does not comprehend his meaning.
  • *
  • *:As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish,I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Joseph Stiglitz)
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=19, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Globalisation is about taxes too , passage=It is time the international community faced the reality : we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. It is a tax system that is pivotal in creating the increasing inequality that marks most advanced countries today
  • A real entity, event or other fact.
  • :
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:And to realities yield all her shows.
  • *(James Beattie) (1735-1803)
  • *:My neck may be an idea to you, but it is reality to me.
  • The entirety of all that is real.
  • An individual observer's own subjective perception of that which is real.
  • (lb) Loyalty; devotion.
  • *(Thomas Fuller) (1606-1661)
  • *:To express our reality to the emperor.
  • Realty; real estate.
  • Synonyms

    * actuality * real world

    Derived terms

    * reality check * reality show * reality television * virtual reality

    See also

    * tao

    Anagrams

    * irately ----

    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