different between conjectural vs imaginary

English

Etymology

conjecture +? -al

Adjective

conjectural (comparative more conjectural, superlative most conjectural)

1. In the nature of a conjecture, or based on a conjecture.

Synonyms

• hypothetical

Translations

Noun

conjectural (plural conjecturals)

1. Something that is conjectural; a conjecture.
   • 1821, Richard Franck, Northern memoirs (page 15)

     Let us not assume such previous conjecturals, but rather consult and expostulate death, since death is the wages and the reward of sin.

French

Adjective

conjectural (feminine singular conjecturale, masculine plural conjecturaux, feminine plural conjecturales)

1. conjectural

Further reading

• “conjectural” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Portuguese

Adjective

conjectural m or f (plural conjecturais, comparable)

1. conjectural (in the nature of a conjecture)

Romanian

Etymology

From French conjectural

Adjective

conjectural m or n (feminine singular conjectural?, masculine plural conjecturali, feminine and neuter plural conjecturale)

1. conjectural

Declension

English

Etymology

From Middle French imaginaire, from Latin im?gin?rius (“relating to images, fancied”), from im?g?.

The mathematical sense derives from René Descartes's use (of the French imaginaire) in 1637, La Geometrie, to ridicule the notion of regarding non-real roots of polynomials as numbers. Although Descartes' usage was derogatory, the designation stuck even after the concept gained acceptance in the 18th century.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??mæd??n(?)?i/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??mæd???n??i/

Adjective

imaginary (comparative more imaginary, superlative most imaginary)

1. Existing only in the imagination.

   • Wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer / Imaginary ills and fancied tortures?

2. (mathematics, of a number) Having no real part; that part of a complex number which is a multiple of ${\displaystyle {\sqrt {-1}}}$ (called imaginary unit).

Synonyms

• (existing only in the imagination): all in one's head

Derived terms

• imaginarily
• imaginariness
• imaginarity
• imaginary number
• imaginary unit

Translations

Noun

imaginary (plural imaginaries)

1. Imagination; fancy. [from 16th c.]
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 324:

     By then too Mozart's opera, from Da Ponte's libretto, had made Figaro a stock character in the European imaginary and set the whole Continent whistling Mozartian airs and chuckling at Figaresque humour.
2. (mathematics) An imaginary quantity. [from 18th c.]
3. (sociology) 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.

References