Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
mind's eye

mind's eye

23 5.6
The ability to imagine pictures and scenes in your head
  • noun
translation icon : imaginación
  • When you close your eyes, you can see the scene in your mind's eye as vividly as if it were real.
  • saw in her mind's eye
  • picture in your mind's eye

Examples

  • Because I did a little creative visualization... and I saw it succeeding in my mind's eye.

    Stealing Harvard (2002)

  • Susanne wasn't the one he'd been searching for, the woman in his mind's eye.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Just picture it in your mind's eye.

    White Bird (2023)

  • I can still see the entire scene in my mind's eye as clearly as I saw it that day.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • As she looked at the group in her mind's eye, something was obvious that had not been so before.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • But in her mind's eye, the boy in the yellow shirt appeared before her.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • The children make a trip in their mind's eye as they prepare for the arrival of Sarah.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Join me in my mind's eye for a scene I have imagined many times.

    Academic text (2000)

  • Lately, my mother's stories more and more often have been revived before my mind's eye.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • The scene appeared in my mind's eye like a small dim window flickering open in a velvet darkness.

    Fiction book (1995)

Synonyms

vision
vsmind's eye
848 3.8

A clear image in the mind of something not present

is the general capacity to picture images and scenes not necessarily vivid
imagination
vsmind's eye
717 2.8

The ability to form new pictures and ideas in your mind that are not real

focuses specifically on visual images and scenes rather than broader ideas
imagery
vsmind's eye
15 4.9

The ability to make pictures in your mind

emphasizes imagining whole scenes rather than only separate pictures
mental imagery
vsmind's eye
  • Specialized
1 4.2

Ability to make pictures in your mind of things that are not there

is the general ability to imagine scenes without emphasizing particular objects

How Vivid

mind's eye
23 5.6
vision
848 3.8
imagination
717 2.8

Surface Forms

mind's eye singular
mind's eyes plural

Morphology

mind's + eye

The phrase uses a simple possessive metaphor — the 'eye' of the 'mind' — to refer to internal visual imagination. This figurative mapping is fairly direct and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows 'mind' and 'eye' can usually infer the meaning, but it still relies on a metaphorical extension rather than strict compositionality.

Etymology

The phrase mind's eye comes from the idea of an eye inside your mind that 'looks' at memories and pictures you make there. That's why it means 'the ability to imagine or see images and scenes in your mind'.