"mind's eye" meaning in English

See mind's eye in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈmaɪndz ˌaɪ/ [UK, US] Forms: mind's eyes [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} mind's eye (plural mind's eyes)
  1. (idiomatic) The ability to picture an image mentally through imagination. Tags: idiomatic Coordinate_terms: aphantasia, aphantasiac, hyperphantasia, hyperphantasiac, hyperphantasic, mind's ear Translations (human ability for visualization): გონების თვალი (gonebis tvali) (Georgian), 心眼 (shingan) (alt: しんがん) (Japanese), oczy duszy [plural] (Polish)

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "mind's eyes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "mind's eye (plural mind's eyes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
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        {
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
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          "name": "Terms with Georgian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Japanese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Polish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "coordinate_terms": [
        {
          "word": "aphantasia"
        },
        {
          "word": "aphantasiac"
        },
        {
          "word": "hyperphantasia"
        },
        {
          "word": "hyperphantasiac"
        },
        {
          "word": "hyperphantasic"
        },
        {
          "word": "mind's ear"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1852, Alfred (King of England), The whole works of King Alfred the Great",
          "text": "He who would see it with his mind's eye must begin by very little, and then by little and little climb nigher and nigher, and stepmeal, as if he were climbing on a ladder, and would be up on some sea'cliff; […]"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              141,
              151
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1927, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, chapter 3, in Mahadev Desai, transl., The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in Gujarati, volume I, Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Navajivan Press, →OCLC:",
          "text": "My father put on a brave face in spite of his injuries, and took full part in the wedding. As I think of it, I can even today call before my mind's eye the places where he sat as he went through the different details of the ceremony. Little did I dream then that one day I should severely criticize my father for having married me as a child.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              28,
              38
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2021 June 8, Carl Zimmer, “Many People Have a Vivid ‘Mind’s Eye,’ While Others Have None at All”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "The study suggests that the mind’s eye acts as an emotional amplifier, strengthening both the positive and negative feelings produced by our experiences.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The ability to picture an image mentally through imagination."
      ],
      "id": "en-mind's_eye-en-noun-EXi~n50y",
      "links": [
        [
          "picture",
          "picture"
        ],
        [
          "image",
          "image"
        ],
        [
          "mentally",
          "mentally"
        ],
        [
          "imagination",
          "imagination"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) The ability to picture an image mentally through imagination."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "ka",
          "lang": "Georgian",
          "lang_code": "ka",
          "roman": "gonebis tvali",
          "sense": "human ability for visualization",
          "word": "გონების თვალი"
        },
        {
          "alt": "しんがん",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "lang_code": "ja",
          "roman": "shingan",
          "sense": "human ability for visualization",
          "word": "心眼"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "human ability for visualization",
          "tags": [
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "oczy duszy"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈmaɪndz ˌaɪ/",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "mind's eye"
}
{
  "coordinate_terms": [
    {
      "word": "aphantasia"
    },
    {
      "word": "aphantasiac"
    },
    {
      "word": "hyperphantasia"
    },
    {
      "word": "hyperphantasiac"
    },
    {
      "word": "hyperphantasic"
    },
    {
      "word": "mind's ear"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "mind's eyes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "mind's eye (plural mind's eyes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Georgian translations",
        "Terms with Japanese translations",
        "Terms with Polish translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1852, Alfred (King of England), The whole works of King Alfred the Great",
          "text": "He who would see it with his mind's eye must begin by very little, and then by little and little climb nigher and nigher, and stepmeal, as if he were climbing on a ladder, and would be up on some sea'cliff; […]"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              141,
              151
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1927, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, chapter 3, in Mahadev Desai, transl., The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in Gujarati, volume I, Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Navajivan Press, →OCLC:",
          "text": "My father put on a brave face in spite of his injuries, and took full part in the wedding. As I think of it, I can even today call before my mind's eye the places where he sat as he went through the different details of the ceremony. Little did I dream then that one day I should severely criticize my father for having married me as a child.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              28,
              38
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2021 June 8, Carl Zimmer, “Many People Have a Vivid ‘Mind’s Eye,’ While Others Have None at All”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "The study suggests that the mind’s eye acts as an emotional amplifier, strengthening both the positive and negative feelings produced by our experiences.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The ability to picture an image mentally through imagination."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "picture",
          "picture"
        ],
        [
          "image",
          "image"
        ],
        [
          "mentally",
          "mentally"
        ],
        [
          "imagination",
          "imagination"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) The ability to picture an image mentally through imagination."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈmaɪndz ˌaɪ/",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ka",
      "lang": "Georgian",
      "lang_code": "ka",
      "roman": "gonebis tvali",
      "sense": "human ability for visualization",
      "word": "გონების თვალი"
    },
    {
      "alt": "しんがん",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "lang_code": "ja",
      "roman": "shingan",
      "sense": "human ability for visualization",
      "word": "心眼"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "human ability for visualization",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "oczy duszy"
    }
  ],
  "word": "mind's eye"
}

Download raw JSONL data for mind's eye meaning in English (2.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-02-14 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-02-01 using wiktextract (f492ef9 and 59dc20b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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