Word Finder - imaginary

definition

Imagination; fancy.

definition

An imaginary quantity.

definition

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.

definition

Existing only in the imagination.

example

Santa Claus is imaginary.

definition

(of a number) Having no real part; that part of a complex number which is a multiple of the square root of -1.

He paused at the door and mimed a jump shot at an imaginary hoop.

It is an imaginary history of the patriarchs and their descendants.

I can get into enough trouble without people squeezing imaginary insults out of my words.

All that is recorded, in any literature, of what pretend to be the actual words spoken by living or imaginary people is of the nature of dialogue.

It may be remarked that we cannot with a real point and line obtain the node with two imaginary tangents (conjugate or isolated point or acnode), nor again the real double tangent with two imaginary points of contact; but this is of little consequence, since in the general theory the distinction between real and imaginary is not attended to.

Reverting to the purely plane theory, infinity is a line, related like any other right line to the curve, and thus intersecting it in m points, real or imaginary, distinct or coincident.

The narrative of his travels given by his disciple Damis and reproduced by Philostratus is so full of the miraculous that many have regarded him as an imaginary character.

But the resultant equation may have all or any of its roots imaginary, and it is thus not always that there are m real intersections.

It is, moreover, to be noticed that the points at infinity may be all or any of them imaginary, and that the points of intersection, whether finite or at infinity, real or imaginary, may coincide two or more of them together, and have to be counted accordingly; to support the theorem in its universality, it is necessary to take account of these various circumstances.

Stating the theorem in regard to a conic, we have a real point P (called the pole) and a real line XY (called the polar), the line joining the two (real or imaginary) points of contact of the (real or imaginary) tangents drawn from the point to the conic; and the theorem is that when the point describes a line the line passes through a point, this line and point being polar and pole to each other.

Consider two circles partially drawn so that it does not appear whether the circles, if completed, would or would not intersect in real points, say two arcs of circles; then we can, by means of a third circle drawn so as to intersect in two real points each of the two arcs, determine a right line, which, if the complete circles intersect in two real points, passes through the points, and which is on this account regarded as a line passing through two (real or imaginary) points of intersection of the two circles.

The radio was playing a waltz as she walked through the family room and she moved to the sway of it, dancing with an imaginary friend.

Any colors seen in films or in books are purely imaginary.

It may be noticed that the nine inflections of a cubic curve represented by an equation with real coefficients are three real, six imaginary; the three real inflections lie in a line, as was known to Newton and Maclaurin.

For a cuspidal cubic the six imaginary inflections and two of the real inflections disappear, and there remains one real inflection.

For real figures we have the general theorem that imaginary intersections, &c., present themselves in conjugate pairs; hence, in particular, that a curve of an even order is met by a line in an even number (which may be = o) of points; a curve of an odd order in an odd number of points, hence in one point at least; it will be seen further on that the theorem may be generalized in a remarkable manner.

Again, when there is in question only one pair of points or lines, these, if coincident, must be real; thus, b line meets a cubic curve in three points, one of them real, and other two real or imaginary; but if two of the intersections coincide they must be real, and we have a line cutting a cubic in one real point and touching it in another real point.

It may be remarked that this is a limit separating the two cases where the intersections are all real, and where they are one real, two imaginary.

The branch, whether re-entrant or infinite, may have a cusp or cusps, or it may cut itself or another branch, thus having or giving rise to crunodes or double points with distinct real tangents; an acnode, or double point with imaginary tangents, is a branch by itself, - it may be considered as an indefinitely small re-entrant branch.

As regards the so-called hyperbolisms, observe that (besides the single asymptote) we have in the case of those of the hyperbola two parallel asymptotes; in the case of those of the ellipse the two parallel asymptotes become imaginary, that is, they disappear; and in the case of those of the parabola they become coincident, that is, there is here an ordinary asymptote, and a special asymptote answering to a cusp at infinity.

There are in some cases points termed centres, or singular or multiple foci (the nomenclature is unsettled), which are the intersections of improper tangents from the two circular points respectively; thus, in the circular cubic, the tangents to the curve at the two circular points respectively (or two imaginary asymptotes of the curve) meet in a centre.

In the case of our own conduct what we call conscience is really sympathy with the feelings of an imaginary impartial spectator.

In the utilitarianism of Paley and Bentham the proper rules of conduct, moral and legal, are determined by comparing the imaginary consequences of different modes of regulation on men and women, conceived as specimens of a substantially uniform and unchanging type.

The motion of the bubble then measures double the inclination of this imaginary axis, or the deviation of a cylinder on which the level may rest from horizontality.

Analytically it is defined by an equation of the second degree of which the highest terms represent two imaginary lines.

In the contrary case, total reflection commences as soon as sin i =µ 1, µ being still the relative refractive index of the more highly refracting medium; and for greater angles of incidence r becomes imaginary.

Now Fresnel's formulae were obtained by assuming that the incident, reflected and refracted vibrations are in the same or opposite phases at the interface of the media, and since there is no real factor that converts cos T into cos (T+p), he inferred that the occurrence of imaginary expressions for the coefficients of vibration denotes a change of phase other than 7r, this being represented by a change of sign.

Formulae for metallic reflection may be obtained from Fresnel's expressions by writing the ratio sin i / sin r equal to a complex quantity, and interpreting the imaginary coefficients in the manner explained above.

Hence much pure invention, bolstered up by forgery of charters, falsification of genuine ones, and construction of imaginary pedigrees.

It denotes the imaginary line about which a body or system of bodies rotates, or a line about which a body or action is symmetrically disposed.

Might not mathematics be a purely imaginary science?

As a culture-hero or inventor and teacher of the arts of life, he belongs to a wide and well-known category of imaginary beings.

The annual aberration is the aberration correction for an imaginary observer at the Earth's center.

In spite of me telling her to keep the chat soley about G/D She ignores that and starts chatting about all her imaginary ailments.

Jumping into the water we ran up the beach shouting and yelling and firing blank ammunition at an imaginary enemy.

For free market anarchists to be talking about pressing an imaginary button is thus deeply confusing.

To do the same for disagreements about a delusional world inhabited by archangels, demons and imaginary friends is ludicrously tragic.

These include an armadillo, an elephant, a squid, as well as mermaids and other imaginary creatures.

The teacher asked the pupils to solve a money problem involving an imaginary rich aunt.

The wholly imaginary landscapes of the essayist and painter Cecil Collins had attained their conviction in the 1930s through sheer invention.

Actually, this threat was largely imaginary, or at the very least negligible.

Of course the character could be entirely imaginary - in which case MacMillan would probably enjoy the speculation.

Thus present itself being only imaginary, past and future are equally so.

Here was a real translation, a transportation from place to place, not imaginary, for then Christ had been in no danger.

I'd say that that's a pretty good reason why your so-called jesus could be considered imaginary.

Martin Turner takes you on a journey from the motion of a microscopic particle to the creation of imaginary moonscapes.

Might the concept of an ' imaginary celebrity playlist ' be more interesting than a celebrity playlist?

In children, the symptoms are not attributable to imaginary playmates or other fantasy play.

Unfortunately grown ups will often dismiss this as a normal attachment to an imaginary friend and may even ridicule the child.

She is much more likely to be accurate when imaginary sweeties involved as well!