envisage, envision

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).

Dictionary of troublesome word. . 2013.

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  • 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… …   Dictionary of troublesome word

  • envision — 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 — 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

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

  • envision — 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,… …   New thesaurus

  • 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

  • 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… …   Bryson’s dictionary for writers and editors

  • envision — ► VERB ▪ visualize; envisage …   English terms dictionary

  • envision, envisage — These words are so often used interchangeably by knowledgeable speakers and writers that distinctions in meaning have vanished. In strict usage, envision means to have a vision, to foresee, whereas envisage has more a meaning of facing, seeing… …   Dictionary of problem words and expressions

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