Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Characterized by imagination; imaginative.
  • Given to the use of rhetorical figures or images.
  • In entomology, of or pertaining to the imago or perfect state of an insect.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Characterized by imagination; imaginative; also, given to the use or rhetorical figures or imagins.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) Of or pertaining to an imago.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) masses of hypodermic cells, carried by the larvæ of some insects after leaving the egg, from which masses the wings and legs of the adult are subsequently formed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or relating to the imagination, or to a mental image.
  • adjective Of or relating to the insect imago.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Corbin coined the word imaginal to name this other world.

    Experiencing the Next World Now Michael Grosso 2004

  • Corbin coined the word imaginal to name this other world.

    Experiencing the Next World Now Michael Grosso 2004

  • Corbin coined the word imaginal to name this other world.

    Experiencing the Next World Now Michael Grosso 2004

  • She says that when a caterpillar encases itself in its cocoon, tiny cells called imaginal cells begin to appear within the chrysalis.

    Love For No Reason Marci Shimoff 2010

  • She says that when a caterpillar encases itself in its cocoon, tiny cells called imaginal cells begin to appear within the chrysalis.

    Love For No Reason Marci Shimoff 2010

  • There's an imbalance between consumption and its metabolic needs and within the body of the caterpillar, there are a few cells that scientists refer to as the imaginal cells, as in they're imagining or dreaming a new reality.

    CNN Transcript Jan 22, 2005 2005

  • Thus in certain Diptera (two winged flies) the legs, wings, eyes, &c., are derived from masses of formative tissue (termed imaginal disks), which by their mutual approximation together build up parts of the head and body, [170] recalling to mind the development of

    On the Genesis of Species St. George Mivart

  • Surprise might be greater did the observers realise that the imaginal is the normal hibernating stage for these species.

    The Life-Story of Insects 1902

  • Science studies phenomena in the material world, the realm of the measurable and weighable, while spirituality and true religion draw their inspiration from experiential knowledge of the aspect of the world that Jungians refer to as "imaginal," to distinguish it from imaginary products of individual fantasy or psychopathology.

    Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D.: Science and Spirituality: Observations from Modern Consciousness Research Stanislav Grof 2010

  • Our participation is imaginal; we are not inactive in this contemplation, but it is as if the work operated on us since we have to look through the poem at the thing it show us, to forget the printed page before us.

    Shadows of Ecstasy, by Charles Williams « Unknowing 2010

  • Then, from bundles of cells known as imaginal disks, a new body takes form

    The Little-Known World of Caterpillars Condé Nast 2023

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