{
    "term": "imagination",
    "partOfSpeech": "noun",
    "ox3000": true,
    "cefr": "b2",
    "definitions": [
        {
            "senseNumber": 1,
            "definition": "the ability to create pictures in your mind; the part of your mind that does this",
            "sensetop": "in your imagination",
            "labels": "(informal)",
            "cefr": "b2",
            "ox3000": true,
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "a **vivid/fertile imagination**"
                },
                {
                    "text": "He **has no imagination**."
                },
                {
                    "text": "It doesn't **take much imagination** to guess what she meant."
                },
                {
                    "text": "I won't tell you his reaction—**I'll leave that to your imagination**."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Don't let your imagination run away with you *(= don't use too much imagination)*."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The new policies appear to have **captured the imagination** of the public *(= they find them interesting and exciting)*"
                },
                {
                    "text": "His stories really stretch children’s imaginations."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Nobody hates you—it's all in your imagination.",
                    "contextForm": "in your imagination"
                },
                {
                    "text": "This is an image which persists **in the popular imagination**."
                },
                {
                    "text": "**Use your imagination!** *(= used to tell somebody that they will have to guess the answer to the question they have asked you, usually because it is obvious or embarrassing)*"
                },
                {
                    "text": "Dinosaurs caught and have held the imagination of us all because they seem like dragons."
                },
                {
                    "text": "His imagination conjured up a vision of the normal family life he had never had."
                },
                {
                    "text": "I don't have a picture of this, so you'll just have to use your imagination."
                },
                {
                    "text": "It's just a product of your fevered imagination!"
                },
                {
                    "text": "Not by any stretch of the imagination could the town be called beautiful."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The figure vanished as silently as if it had simply been a figment of her imagination."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The film haunted the imaginations of viewers."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The scale of the disaster defied imagination."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Victorian writers fired the popular imagination with their tales of adventure."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Was it only her imagination playing tricks on her?"
                },
                {
                    "text": "The pyramids retain a remarkable hold on the human imagination."
                },
                {
                    "text": "She has a vivid imagination."
                },
                {
                    "text": "How these characters have caught the imagination of children is unbelievable."
                }
            ],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["great", "active", "creative"],
                "verb + imagination": ["have", "show", "lack"],
                "imagination + verb": [
                    "conjure something up",
                    "play tricks on you",
                    "run away with you"
                ],
                "preposition": [
                    "beyond (your) imagination",
                    "in the/​your imagination",
                    "with imagination"
                ],
                "phrases": [
                    "a lack of imagination",
                    "a figment of somebody’s imagination",
                    "a product of somebody’s imagination"
                ]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 2,
            "definition": "something that you have imagined rather than something that exists",
            "cefr": "b2",
            "ox3000": true,
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "She was no longer able to distinguish between imagination and reality."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Is it my imagination or have you lost a lot of weight?"
                }
            ],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["great", "active", "creative"],
                "verb + imagination": ["have", "show", "lack"],
                "imagination + verb": [
                    "conjure something up",
                    "play tricks on you",
                    "run away with you"
                ],
                "preposition": [
                    "beyond (your) imagination",
                    "in the/​your imagination",
                    "with imagination"
                ],
                "phrases": [
                    "a lack of imagination",
                    "a figment of somebody’s imagination",
                    "a product of somebody’s imagination"
                ]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 3,
            "definition": "the ability to have new and exciting ideas",
            "labels": "(approving)",
            "cefr": "b2",
            "ox3000": true,
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "His writing lacks imagination."
                },
                {
                    "text": "**With a little imagination**, you could turn this place into a palace."
                },
                {
                    "text": "We are looking for someone with ingenuity and imagination."
                }
            ],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["great", "active", "creative"],
                "verb + imagination": ["have", "show", "lack"],
                "imagination + verb": [
                    "conjure something up",
                    "play tricks on you",
                    "run away with you"
                ],
                "preposition": [
                    "beyond (your) imagination",
                    "in the/​your imagination",
                    "with imagination"
                ],
                "phrases": [
                    "a lack of imagination",
                    "a figment of somebody’s imagination",
                    "a product of somebody’s imagination"
                ]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": null,
            "definition": "to allow more of somebody’s body to be seen than usual",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "Her tight-fitting dress left nothing to the imagination."
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": null,
            "definition": "used to say strongly that something is not true, even if you try to imagine or believe it",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "She could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be called beautiful."
                },
                {
                    "text": "By no stretch of the imagination could the trip be described as relaxing."
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "pronunciations": {
        "uk": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ɪˌmædʒɪˈneɪʃn/",
                "audio": "im/imagination/imagination__gb_1.mp3"
            }
        ],
        "us": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ɪˌmædʒɪˈneɪʃn/",
                "audio": "im/imagination/imagination__us_1.mp3"
            }
        ]
    },
    "wordOrigin": "Middle English: via Old French from Latin imaginatio(n-), from the verb imaginari ‘picture to oneself’, from imago, imagin- ‘image’."
}