Definition of "imagination" []

• The formation of a mental image of something that is neither perceived as real nor present to the senses. (noun)
• The mental image so formed. (noun)
• The ability or tendency to form such images. (noun)
• The ability to confront and deal with reality by using the creative power of the mind; resourcefulness: handled the problems with great imagination. (noun)
• A traditional or widely held belief or opinion. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Yet the framing of hypothesis is no mere random guesswork; it is left not to the imagination alone, but to the _scientific imagination_."
• "The only way out of this difficulty is to look upon the imagination as itself active and expressive in _verbal imagination_, and language as the language of _intuition_, not of the intelligence."
• "It's an illusion of course -- that particular romance of America; the endless promise of the road that exists in imagination, is now, in reality, book ended by a bankrupt state."