Imagery

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɪmɪd͡ʒɹi/

Definitions

1. Visual and sensory representations evoked through language, art, or creative expression that stimulate mental pictures or emotional responses
2. Descriptive or figurative language and artistic elements designed to create vivid mental impressions and appeal to a viewer's or reader's senses
3. The use of detailed sensory descriptions or artistic details that paint vivid pictures in the mind ; the creation of mental pictures or symbols representing ideas or concepts

Etymology: Middle English borrowed "ymagerie" from Middle French "imagerie", a word for carved or painted figures, religious statues and pictures. In that original sense, an image was a physical likeness: a sculpted saint in a church, or a painted panel on a wall. The word was built by adding the suffix "-ry" to "image", the same suffix that gives English words like "pottery" and "jewelry", where it marks a collection or category of things. The modern sense of mental pictures came later, as the physical sense of "image" widened to include likenesses formed in the mind. Over time, the word moved from things you could touch, such as statues and carvings, to pictures you could only see in your head, and "imagery" now most often describes the sensory detail a writer builds with words.

Synonyms: visuals, pictures, illustrations, representations, depictions

Antonyms: literalness, reality, fact, truth, plainness