IMAGINAL Synonyms: 93 Similar and Opposite Words

imaginal

adjective

i-ˈma-jə-nᵊl

Definition of imaginal

as in graphic

consisting of or relating to pictures after a desensitizing series of imaginal exposures to the feared object, the phobic person is then exposed to the actual object

Synonyms & Similar Words

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as in imaginary

not real and existing only in the imagination the equator is merely an imaginal line

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of imaginal Peter [Merry] likes to use is that, when a caterpillar is becoming a butterfly, new ‘imaginal cells’ emerge. — Big Think, 7 Aug. 2025 With one technique, for example—called imaginal exposure—you might be asked to visualize the process of going to the airport, boarding the plane, and experiencing a bad bout of turbulence. — Angela Haupt, TIME, 10 May 2024 Then, from bundles of cells known as imaginal disks, a new body takes form. — Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 13 Mar. 2023

Recent Examples of Synonyms for imaginal

Adjective

What follows is the sequence that earned You Can See Everything its R for graphic nudity.

— Alex Barasch, Vulture, 19 Oct. 2026
At that, the giant screens reverted to a graphic inviting fans to request a song, before a smaller video image appeared.

— Théoden Janes, Charlotte Observer, 18 Oct. 2026

Definition of graphic

Adjective

The book used an imaginary dialogue between two women to explain the principles of economics, collecting the ideas of the new science together in a way that had never before been attempted.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 26 Oct. 2026
Bill Irwin isn’t going anywhere — knock on all available wood — except quickly to the imaginary bathroom just off stage right several times a night as his character’s regimen of enemas kicks in.

— Sara Holdren, Vulture, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of imaginary

Adjective

Dawson turned the feedback into a visual installation featuring hundreds of handwritten words on sticky notes representing the community's hopes and aspirations.

— Adam Thompson, CBS News, 22 Oct. 2026
That setup, thanks in large part to Pask’s meticulous set-dressing, gives Crystal and his director Scott Ellis a potent visual metaphor.

— Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of visual

Adjective

Basquiat himself was the star of Downtown 81, playing a mythic version of himself.

— Bethy Squires, Vulture, 21 Oct. 2026
In their utopian reconstruction of a mythic past, the Agrarians’ polemics failed to mention the South’s legacies of slavery and rebellion.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 2026

Definition of mythical

Adjective

Since photographic safari tourism began here over a century ago, Namibia has largely been known amongst international travelers as a self-drive vacation—a destination with plenty of do-it-yourself road trips through otherworldly desert landscapes.

— Samantha Falewée, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Oct. 2026
His introduction to Black rodeo culture came in 2015, beginning what would become an extensive photographic journey across the United States.

— Robert Lang, Deadline, 19 Oct. 2026

Definition of photographic

Adjective

The novel was also partly epistolary, including segments of fictional court transcripts and news coverage created by King (who enjoyed mimicking different writing styles).

— ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 21 Oct. 2026
The film—based on the 2014 play Switzerland by Joanna Murray-Smith—sets a fictional scene in the final chapter of Highsmith’s life.

— Alex Jhamb Burns, Vogue, 21 Oct. 2026

Definition of fictional

Adjective

This Lincolnian view of the war—that the United States was perpetual and that the Confederate States of America was a fictitious, farcical nation—has led to various historical interpretations ever since, among historians and laypeople alike.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 19 Oct. 2026
The series will be set in a fictitious Barneys in Beverly Hills, not New York, and the real founding family of the retailer, the Pressman family, has no involvement, the spokesperson said.

— Jean E. Palmieri, Footwear News, 14 Oct. 2026

Definition of fictitious

Browse Nearby Words

imaginably

imaginal

imaginary

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“Imaginal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/imaginal. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of imaginal

adjective

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