Emaki · all 1,500 words

想像

そうぞう

imagination

Mnemonic

What forms over a heart when the thing is not actually there, and a person stood next to an elephant. There is no elephant. So そう, zoo ぞう, a whole zoo of nothing: そうぞう.

Worth knowing

想像する is to imagine. 想像力 そうぞうりょく is imagination as a faculty.

Built from

conceive, think of
相 taking the measure of something, sat on 心 a heart. What forms in there when the thing itself is not in front of you.
image, likeness
亻 a person next to 象 an elephant, which also does the shape of a thing. A likeness rather than the thing itself.

Words sharing these kanji

prospect, expectation

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Emaki is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, Kaishi 1.5k or its authors. The word, reading and meaning come from the Kaishi 1.5k deck, used with their permission. The mnemonic, the note and the kanji breakdown are original work, published under CC BY-SA 4.0.