Roget's Thesaurus Part 61

#515. Imagination. -- N. imagination; originality; invention; fancy; inspiration; verve.

warm imagination, heated imagination, excited imagination, sanguine imagination, ardent imagination, fiery imagination, boiling imagination, wild imagination, bold imagination, daring imagination, playful imagination, lively imagination, fertile imagination, fancy.

"mind's eye"; "such stuff as dreams are made of" [Tempest].

ideality, idealism; romanticism, utopianism, castle-building.

dreaming; phrensy[obs3], frenzy; ecstasy, extasy[obs3]; calenture &c.

(delirium) 503[obs3]; reverie, trance; day dream, golden dream; somnambulism.

conception, Vorstellung[Ger], excogitation[obs3], "a fine frenzy"; cloudland[obs3], dreamland; flight of fancy, fumes of fancy; "thick coming fancies" [Macbeth]; creation of the brain, coinage of the brain; imagery.

conceit, maggot, figment, myth, dream, vision, shadow, chimera; phantasm, phantasy; fantasy, fancy; whim, whimsey[obs3], whimsy; vagary, rhapsody, romance, gest[obs3], geste[obs3], extravaganza; air drawn dagger, bugbear, nightmare.

flying Dutchman, great sea serpent, man in the moon, castle in the air, pipe dream, pie-in-the-sky, chateau en Espagne[Fr]; Utopia, Atlantis[obs3], happy valley, millennium, fairyland; land of Prester John, kingdom of Micomicon; work of fiction &c. (novel) 594; Arabian nights[obs3]; le pot au lait[Fr]; dream of Alnashar &c. (hope) 858[obs3].

illusion &c. (error) 495; phantom &c. (fallacy of vision) 443; Fata Morgana &c. (ignis fatuus) 423[Lat]; vapor &c. (cloud) 353; stretch of the imagination &c. (exaggeration) 549; mythogenesis[obs3].

idealist, romanticist, visionary; mopus[obs3]; romancer, dreamer; somnambulist; rhapsodist &c. (fanatic) 504; castle-buildier, fanciful projector.

V. imagine, fancy, conceive; idealize, realize; dream, dream of, dream up; "give to airy nothing a local habitation and a name" [Midsummer Night's Dream].

create, originate, devise, invent, coin, fabricate; improvise, strike out something new.

set one's wits to work; strain one's invention, crack one's invention; rack one's brains, ransack one's brains, cudgel one's brains; excogitate[obs3]; brainstorm.

give play, give the reins, give a loose to the imagination, give fancy; indulge in reverie.

visualize, envision, conjure up a vision; fancy oneself, represent oneself, picture, picture-oneself, figure to oneself; vorstellen[Ger].

float in the mind; suggest itself &c. (thought) 451.

Adj. imagined &c. v.; ben trovato[It]; air drawn, airbuilt[obs3].

imagining &cv. v, imaginative; original, inventive, creative, fertile.

romantic, high flown, flighty, extravagant, fanatic, enthusiastic, unrealistic, Utopian, Quixotic.

ideal, unreal; in the clouds, in nubibus[Lat]; unsubsantial[obs3] &c.

4; illusory &c. (fallacious) 495.

fabulous, legendary; mythical, mythic, mythological; chimerical; imaginary, visionary; notional; fancy, fanciful, fantastic, fantastical[obs3]; whimsical; fairy, fairy-like; gestic[obs3].

Phr. "a change came o'er the spirit of my dream" [Byron]; aegri somnia vana[Lat][obs3]; dolphinum appingit sylvis in fluctibus aprum [obs3][Latin][Horace]; "fancy light from fancy caught" [Tennyson]; "imagination rules the world" [Napoleon]; l'imagination gallope[Fr], le jugement ne va que le pas[French]; musaeo contingens cuncta lepore [Latin][Lucretius]; tous songes sont mensonges[French]; Wahrheil und Dichtung[German].

-- DIVISION (II) COMMUNICATION OF IDEAS

SECTION I. NATURE OF IDEAS COMMUNICATED.

#516. [Idea to be conveyed.] Meaning. [Thing signified.] -- N.

meaning; signification, significance; sense, expression; import, purport; force; drift, tenor, spirit, bearing, coloring; scope.

[important part of the meaning] substance; gist, essence, marrow, spirit &c. 5.

matter; subject, subject matter; argument, text, sum and substance.

general meaning, broad meaning, substantial meaning, colloquial meaning, literal meaning, plain meaning, simple meaning, natural meaning, unstrained meaning, true &c. (exact) 494 meaning, honest &c. 543 meaning, prima facie &c. (manifest) 525 meaning[Lat]; letter of the law.

literally; after acceptation.

synonym; implication, allusion &c. (latency) 526; suggestion &c.

(information) 527; figure of speech &c. 521; acceptation &c.

(interpretation) 522.

V. mean, signify, express; import, purport; convey, imply, breathe, indicate, bespeak, bear a sense; tell of, speak of; touch on; point to, allude to; drive at; involve &c. (latency) 526; declare &c. (affirm) 535.

understand by &c. (interpret) 522.

Adj. meaning &c. v.; expressive, suggestive, allusive; significant, significative[obs3], significatory[obs3]; pithy; full of meaning, pregnant with meaning.

declaratory &c. 535; intelligible &c. 518; literal; synonymous; tantamount &c. (equivalent) 27; implied &c. (latent) 526; explicit &c. 525.

Adv. to that effect; that is to say &c. (being interpreted) 522.

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#517. [Absence of meaning.] Unmeaningness. -- N. meaninglessness, unmeaningness &c. adj[obs3].; scrabble.

empty sound, dead letter, vox et praeterea nihil[Lat]; "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"; "sounding bra.s.s and a tinkling cymbal."

nonsense, utter nonsense, gibberish; jargon, jabber, mere words, hocus-pocus, fustian, rant, bombast, balderdash, palaver, flummery, verbiage, babble, baverdage, baragouin[obs3], plat.i.tude, niaiserie[obs3]; inanity; flap-doodle; rigmarole, rodomontade; truism; nugae canorae[Lat]; twaddle, t.w.a.ttle, fudge, trash, garbage, humbug; poppy-c.o.c.k [U.S.]; stuff, stuff and nonsense; bosh, rubbish, moonshine, wish-wash, fiddle-faddle; absurdity &c. 497; vagueness &c. (unintelligibility) 519.

[routine or reflexive statements without substantive thought, esp.

legal] boilerplate.

V. mean nothing; be unmeaning &c. adj.; twaddle, quibble, scrabble.

Adj. unmeaning; meaningless, senseless; nonsensical; void of sense &c.

516.

inexpressive, unexpressive; vacant; not significant &c. 516; insignificant.

trashy, washy, trumpery, trivial, fiddle-faddle, twaddling, quibbling.

unmeant, not expressed; tacit &c. (latent) 526.

inexpressible, undefinable, incommunicable.

#518. Intelligibility. -- N. intelligibility; clearness, explicitness &c. adj.; lucidity, comprehensibility, perspicuity; legibility, plain speaking &c. (manifestation) 525; precision &c. 494; [Grk][Grk]; a word to the wise.

V. be intelligible &c. adj.; speak for itself, speak volumes; tell its own tale, lie on the surface.

render intelligible &c. adj.; popularize, simplify, clear up; elucidate &c. (explain) 522.

understand, comprehend, take, take in; catch, grasp, follow, collect, master, make out; see with half an eye, see daylight, see one's way; enter into the ideas of; come to an understanding.

Adj. intelligible; clear, clear as day, clear as noonday; lucid; perspicuous, transpicuous[obs3]; luminous, transparent.

easily understood, easy to understand, for the million, intelligible to the meanest capacity, popularized.

plain, distinct, explicit; positive; definite &c. (precise) 494.

graphic; expressive &c. (meaning) 516; ill.u.s.trative &c. (explanatory) 522.

unambiguous, unequivocal, unmistakable &c. (manifest) 525; unconfused; legible, recognizable; obvious &c. 525.

Adv. in plain terms, in plain words, in plain English.

Phr. he that runs may read &c. (manifest) 525.

#519. Unintelligibility.-- N. unintelligibility; incomprehensibility, imperspicuity[obs3]; inconceivableness, vagueness &c. adj.; obscurity; ambiguity &c. 520; doubtful meaning; uncertainty &c. 475; perplexity &c.

(confusion) 59; spinosity[obs3]; obscurum per obscurius[Lat]; mystification &c. (concealment) 528; latency &c. 526; transcendentalism.

paradox, oxymoron; riddle, enigma, puzzle &c. (secret) 533; diagnus vindice nodus[Lat]; sealed book; steganography[obs3], freemasonry.

pons asinorum[Lat], a.s.ses' bridge; high Dutch, Greek, Hebrew; jargon &c. (unmeaning) 517.

V. be unintelligible &c. adj.; require explanation &c. 522; have a doubtful meaning, pa.s.s comprehension.

render unintelligible &c. adj.; conceal &c 528; darken &c. 421; confuse &c. (derange) 61; perplex &c. (bewilder) 475.

not understand &c. 518; lose, lose the clue; miss; not know what to make of, be able to make nothing of, give it up; not be able to account for, not be able to make either head or tail of; be at sea &c. (uncertain) 475; wonder &c. 870; see through a gla.s.s darkly &c. (ignorance) 491.

not understand one another; play at cross purposes &c. (misinterpret) 523.

Adj. unintelligible, unaccountable, undecipherable, undiscoverable, unknowable, unfathomable; incognizable[obs3], inexplicable, inscrutable; inapprehensible[obs3], incomprehensible; insolvable[obs3], insoluble; impenetrable.

illegible, as Greek to one, unexplained, paradoxical; enigmatic, enigmatical, puzzling (secret) 533; indecipherable.

obscure, dark, muddy, clear as mud, seen through a mist, dim, nebulous, shrouded in mystery; opaque, dense; undiscernible &c.

(invisible) 447[obs3]; misty &c. (opaque) 426; hidden &c 528; latent &c 526.

indefinite, garbled &c (indistinct) 447; perplexed &c. (confused) 59; undetermined, vague, loose, ambiguous; mysterious; mystic, mystical; acroamatic[obs3], acroamatical[obs3]; metempirical; transcendental; occult, recondite, abstruse, crabbed.

inconceivable, inconceptible[obs3]; searchless[obs3]; above comprehension, beyond comprehension, past comprehension; beyond one's depth; unconceived.

inexpressible, undefinable, incommunicable.

unpredictable, unforeseeable.

Phr. it's Greek to me.

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#520. [Having a double sense] Equivocalness.-- N. equivocalness &c adj.; double meaning &c. 516; ambiguity, double entente, double entendre[Fr], pun, paragram[obs3], calembour[obs3], quibble, equivoque[Fr], anagram; conundrum &c (riddle) 533; play on words, word play &c. (wit) 842; h.o.m.onym, h.o.m.onymy[Gram]; amphiboly[obs3], amphibology[obs3]; ambilogy[obs3], ambiloquy .

Sphinx, Delphic oracle.

equivocation &c. (duplicity) 544; white lie, mental reservation &c.

(concealment) 528; paltering.

V. be -equivocal &c. adj.; have two meanings &c. 516; equivocate &c.

(alter) 544.

Adj. equivocal, ambiguous, amphibolous[obs3], h.o.m.onymous[obs3]; double-tongued &c. (lying) 544; enigmatical, indeterminate.