[syn: fanciful, imaginary, notional]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Imaginary \Im*ag"i*na*ry\, a. [L. imaginarius: cf. F.
imaginaire.]
Existing only in imagination or fancy; not real; fancied;
visionary; ideal.
[1913 Webster]
Wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer
Imaginary ills and fancied tortures? --Addison.
[1913 Webster]
Imaginary calculus See under Calculus.
Imaginary expression or Imaginary quantity (Alg.), an
algebraic expression which involves the impossible
operation of taking the square root of a negative
quantity; as, [root]-9, a + b [root]-1.
Imaginary points, lines, surfaces, etc. (Geom.),
points, lines, surfaces, etc., imagined to exist, although
by reason of certain changes of a figure they have in fact
ceased to have a real existence.
Syn: Ideal; fanciful; chimerical; visionary; fancied; unreal;
illusive.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Imaginary \Im*ag"i*na*ry\, n. (Alg.)
An imaginary expression or quantity.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
imaginary
adj 1: not based on fact; unreal; "the falsehood about some
fanciful secret treaties"- F.D.Roosevelt; "a small
child's imaginary friends"; "to create a notional world
for oneself" [syn: fanciful, imaginary, notional]
n 1: (mathematics) a number of the form a+bi where a and b are
real numbers and i is the square root of -1 [syn: complex
number, complex quantity, imaginary number,
imaginary]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
123 Moby Thesaurus words for "imaginary":
Barmecidal, Barmecide, abstract, air-built, airy, algorismic,
algorithmic, aliquot, apparent, apparitional, autistic, cardinal,
chimeric, chimerical, cloud-built, deceptive, decimal, delusional,
delusionary, delusive, delusory, dereistic, differential, digital,
dreamlike, dreamy, erroneous, ethereal, even, exponential,
fallacious, false, fancied, fanciful, fantastic, fatuitous,
fatuous, fictional, fictitious, fictive, figmental, figural,
figurate, figurative, finite, fractional, gaseous, gossamery,
hallucinatory, hypothetical, ideal, illusional, illusionary,
illusive, illusory, imaginational, imaginative, imagined,
immaterial, impair, impossible, infinite, integral, irrational,
legendary, logarithmic, logometric, made-up, merely nominal,
misleading, mythic, mythical, mythological, negative, nonexistent,
not real, notional, numeral, numerary, numerative, numeric, odd,
ordinal, ostensible, pair, phantasmagoric, phantasmal, phantasmic,
phantom, phantomlike, positive, possible, prime, quixotic, radical,
rarefied, rational, real, reciprocal, seeming, self-deceptive,
self-deluding, shadowy, specious, spectral, spirituous,
submultiple, subtile, subtle, supposititious, surd, tenuous,
transcendental, unactual, unfounded, unreal, unrealistic,
unsubstantial, untrue, vaporous, visional, visionary, windy