Skip to main content
unimaginative

unimaginative

9 4.2
Does not show creativity or new ideas
  • adjective
  • /ˌʌnɪˈmædʒɪnətɪv/
translation icon : poco imaginativo
  • The comparison to the boom writers, though perhaps inevitable, seems to me to be unhelpful and unimaginative.

What a small, unimaginative world we would end up with.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • The Spartans, conversely, were portrayed as parochial, stagnant, unimaginative, and fundamentally insecure.

    Academic text (1994)
  • His unimaginative response to the problem frustrated his creative colleagues.

  • What a small, unimaginative world we would end up with.

  • Reason is the last refuge of the unimaginative, Dad.

  • I always thought that you were a cold, unimaginative, tight-lipped officer.

  • Superstition is for the unimaginative.

  • Once he began to examine the files, he was disappointed to find how utterly unimaginative they were.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • There have always been short-sighted, unimaginative people willing to knock dreamers and those thinking big.

    Blog text (5)
  • Instead of meeting up with the Boys from Brazil, one encounters gray bureaucrats and unimaginative careerists.

    Academic text (2005)
  • Similarly, the spontaneous, disorderly, and creative artistic type contrasts sharply with the self-controlled, conforming, and unimaginative conventional type.

    Academic text (1992)

Synonyms

stereotypical
vsunimaginative
34 4.4

Shows a simple, fixed idea about a group of people

is about conformity to patterns rather than pure absence of imagination
sterile
vsunimaginative
23 6.2

Not showing new ideas or creative thinking

points to missing imagination rather than emphasis on lack of output
uninspired
vsunimaginative
14 4.0

Not having new or interesting ideas

highlights absence of imagination rather than simply being uninteresting or dull
unoriginal
vsunimaginative
8 3.4

Not new or creative like ideas you have heard before

emphasizes lack of imaginative invention rather than simple absence of novelty
stereotyped
vsunimaginative
4 4.4

Showing the same simple ideas again and again

highlights repetitiveness and fixed form rather than missing imaginative spark
uncreative
vsunimaginative
2 4.3

Not having new ideas or ways of doing things

focuses more on missing imaginative drive rather than on creative skill
earthbound
vsunimaginative
1 7.1

Not creative or adventurous, often plain and boring

focuses on lacking imaginative invention not merely on being ordinary or grounded
stereotypic
vsunimaginative
1 7.0

Having no original ideas and following a simple idea about a group of people

emphasizes conformity and typicalness rather than lack of inventive imagination
uninventive
vsunimaginative
1 5.8

Not showing new ideas or imagination

focuses on the imagination gap rather than on technical inventive skill
uninvented
vsunimaginative
8.2

Showing no original ideas or creativity

focuses primarily on missing imagination and inventiveness rather than broader originality
unoriginate
vsunimaginative
8.6

Not new or creative

stresses missing imagination and inventiveness rather than mere absence of novelty
unexplorative
vsunimaginative
8.5

Not willing to try new ideas, places, or experiences

is about limited exploration rather than a general absence of imagination

Antonyms

60 3.7

Having many new and different ideas

40 3.8

Able to think of new and useful ideas

How Imaginative

creative
772 3.3
inventive
40 3.8
imaginative
60 3.7
dull
182 1.3
conventional
175 2.8
unimaginative
9 4.2

Surface Forms

unimaginative positive
unimaginative comparative
unimaginative superlative

Morphology

unimaginative = imaginative (transparent) = un + imagin + ative

The negative prefix 'un-' is directly attached to the adjective 'imaginative', producing the straightforward meaning 'not imaginative'.

Etymology

The word unimaginative begins with un- meaning 'not' and uses imagine, which is related to the word image meaning 'picture'. So unimaginative suggests 'not full of pictures' in the mind, which is why it describes someone or something that is not creative or original.