envisage

envisage
 , envision
 Both words suggest the calling up of a mental image. Envision is slightly the loftier of the two. You might envision a better life for yourself, but if all you are thinking about is how the dining room will look when the walls have been repainted, envisage is probably the better word. If no mental image is involved, neither word is correct. A rough rule is that if you find yourself following either word with that, you are using it incorrectly, as here: "He envisaged that there would be no access to the school from the main road" (cited by Gowers).

Bryson’s dictionary for writers and editors. 2013.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • envisage — envisage, envision 1. Envisage is an early 19c loanword from French, meaning at first ‘to look in the face of’ and then (its current meaning) ‘to have a mental picture of (something yet to happen)’. Fowler (1926) dismissed it as an ‘undesirable… …   Modern English usage

  • Envisage — En*vis age (?; 48), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Envisaged} (?; 48); p. pr. & vb. n. {Envisaging}.] [F. envisager; pref. en (L. in) + visage face, visage. See {Visage}.] To look in the face of; to apprehend; to regard. [R.] Keats. [1913 Webster] From the …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • envisagé — envisagé, ée (an vi za jé, jée) part. passé. 1°   Regardé au visage. Envisagé par l agent de police et aussitôt reconnu. 2°   Regardé en esprit. Des périls envisagés avec sang froid …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

  • envisage — index compose, conceive (comprehend), conjure, invent (produce for the first time) Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • envisage — 1778, from Fr. envisager look in the face of, from en cause to (see EN (Cf. en ) (1)) + visage face (see VISAGE (Cf. visage)). Related: Envisaged; envisaging …   Etymology dictionary

  • envisage — envisage, envision conceive, imagine, *think, realize, fancy Analogous words: view, behold, survey, contemplate (see SEE): objectify, externalize, materialize, *realize …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • envisage — / envision [v] picture in one’s mind anticipate, behold, conceive, conceptualize, contemplate, externalize, fancy, feature, foresee, form mental picture of*, grasp, have a picture of*, image, imagine, look upon, materialize, objectify, predict,… …   New thesaurus

  • envisagé — Envisagé, [envisag]ée. part. pass …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • envisage — ► VERB 1) regard or conceive of as a possibility. 2) form a mental picture of. ORIGIN French envisager, from visage face …   English terms dictionary

  • envisage — [en viz′ij, inviz′ij] vt. envisaged, envisaging [Fr envisager: see EN 1 & VISAGE] 1. Rare to face; confront 2. to form an image of in the mind; visualize; imagine …   English World dictionary

  • envisage */*/ — UK [ɪnˈvɪzɪdʒ] / US verb [transitive] Word forms envisage : present tense I/you/we/they envisage he/she/it envisages present participle envisaging past tense envisaged past participle envisaged a) to have something as a plan or an intention The… …   English dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”