Image Definition | What is Image? - PoetrySoup

[n] a representation of a person (especially in the form of sculpture); "the coin bears an effigy of Lincoln"; "the emperor's tomb had his image carved in stone"
[n] a visual representation of an object or scene or person produced on a surface; "they showed us the pictures of their wedding"; "a movie is a series of images projected so rapidly that the eye integrates them"
[n] (Jungian psychology) a personal facade one presents to the world; "a public image is as fragile as Humpty Dumpty"
[n] an iconic mental representation; "her imagination forced images upon her too awful to contemplate"
[n] a standard or typical example; "he is the prototype of good breeding"; "he provided America with an image of the good father"
[n] language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense
[n] someone who closely resembles a famous person (especially an actor); "he could be Gingrich's double"; "she's the very image of her mother"
[v] imagine; conceive of; see in one's mind; "I can't see him on horseback!"; "I can see what will happen"; "I can see a risk in this strategy"

Images are representations of sensations perceived through the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. Visual images are the most common e.g. William Carlos Williams' famous:  'a red wheel/barrow/glazed with rain/water'. However, images can rely on any of the senses. 'Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn' from Keats' To Autumn is an example of an auditory image.

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Synonyms

double, effigy, envision, epitome, fancy, figure, figure, figure of speech, icon, ikon, look-alike, mental image, paradigm, persona, picture, picture, project, prototype, see, simulacrum, trope, visualise, visualize

See Also...

appearance, auditory image, bird-scarer, bitmap, chiaroscuro, conceive of, concentrate, cyclorama, dead ringer, diorama, drawing, electronic image, envisage, exaggeration, example, exposure, foil, god, graven image, Guy, human, hyperbole, ideate, idol, imagination image, imagine, imago, impression, individual, inset, internal representation, irony, kenning, likeness, memory image, mental picture, mental representation, metaphor, metonymy, model, mortal, oxymoron, panorama, person, personification, photo, photograph, pic, picture, prosopopoeia, reflection, reflexion, representation, representation, rhetorical device, ringer, scarecrow, scarer, semblance, simile, somebody, someone, sonogram, soul, strawman, synecdoche, thought-image, transparency, visual aspect, visual image, visualisation, visualization, wax figure, waxwork, zeugma

Related Terms

abstract, abstraction, adumbrate, affectation, affectedness, airs, airs and graces, allusion, ally, altarpiece, alter ego, analogon, analogue, angle, apparition, appearance, apprehension, archetypal pattern, archetype, artificiality, asiaticism, aspect, a

[n] the ability to form mental images of things or events; "he could still hear her in his imagination"

The creation of images using words. Poets usually achieve this by invoking comparisons by means of metaphor or simile or other figures of speech. In his famous line from sonnet 18 Shakespeare creates an image by comparing his love to a 'summer's day'.

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Synonyms

imagination, imaging, mental imagery

See Also...

chimaera, chimera, dream, dreaming, envisioning, evocation, make-believe, mind's eye, picturing, pretence, pretense, representational process, vision

Related Terms

allusion, alphabet, apparition, art, asiaticism, blueprint, brainchild, bubble, cameo, catalog, cataloging, character, character sketch, charactering, characterization, chart, chimera, choreography, concept, conception, conceptualization, conventional rep