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imaginary

Pronunciation: /ɪˈmæd͡ʒɪnəɹi/

The English word “imaginary” has 6 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Existing only in the imagination.
  2. Relating or belonging to the imagination.
  3. Having no real part; that part of a complex number which is a multiple of √ (called imaginary unit).

noun

  1. Imagination; fancy.
  2. An imaginary number.
  3. The set of values, institutions, laws, and symbols common to a particular social group and the corresponding society through which people imagine their social whole.

Etymology

From Middle English ymaginarie, ymagynary, from Latin imāginārius (“relating to images, fancied”), from imāgō, equivalent to imagine + -ary. The mathematical sense derives from René Descartes's use (of the French imaginaire) in 1637, La Geometrie, to ridicule the notion of regarding non-real roots of polynomials as numbers. Although Descartes' usage was derogatory, the designation stuck even…

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