Adjacent Words

Vision definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

VI'SION, n. s as z. [L. visio, from video, visus.]
1. The act of seeing external objects; actual sight.
Faith here is turned into vision there.
2. The faculty of seeing; sight. Vision is far more perfect and acute in some animals than in man.
3. Something imagined to be seen, though not real; a phantom; a specter.
No dreams, but visions strange.
4. In Scripture, a revelation from God; an appearance or exhibition of something supernaturally presented to the minds of the prophets, by which they were informed of future events. Such were the visions of Isaiah, of Amos, of Ezekiel, etc.
5. Something imaginary; the production of fancy.
6. Any thing which is the object of sight.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a vivid mental image; "he had a vision of his own death"
2: the ability to see; the visual faculty [syn: sight, vision, visual sense, visual modality]
3: the perceptual experience of seeing; "the runners emerged from the trees into his clear vision"; "he had a visual sensation of intense light" [syn: vision, visual sensation]
4: the formation of a mental image of something that is not perceived as real and is not present to the senses; "popular imagination created a world of demons"; "imagination reveals what the world could be" [syn: imagination, imaginativeness, vision]
5: a religious or mystical experience of a supernatural appearance; "he had a vision of the Virgin Mary"

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin vision-, visio, from vid?re to see — more at wit Date: 14th century 1. a. something seen in a dream, trance, or ecstasy; especially a supernatural appearance that conveys a revelation b. a thought, concept, or object formed by the imagination c. a manifestation to the senses of something immaterial <look, not at visions, but at realities — Edith Wharton> 2. a. the act or power of imagination b. (1) mode of seeing or conceiving (2) unusual discernment or foresight <a person of vision> c. direct mystical awareness of the supernatural usually in visible form 3. a. the act or power of seeing ; sight b. the special sense by which the qualities of an object (as color, luminosity, shape, and size) constituting its appearance are perceived through a process in which light rays entering the eye are transformed by the retina into electrical signals that are transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve 4. a. something seen b. a lovely or charming sight • visional adjective • visionally adverb II. transitive verb (visioned; visioning) Date: 1743 envision

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 the act or faculty of seeing, sight (has impaired his vision). 2 a a thing or person seen in a dream or trance. b a supernatural or prophetic apparition. 3 a thing or idea perceived vividly in the imagination (the romantic visions of youth; had visions of warm sandy beaches). 4 imaginative insight. 5 statesmanlike foresight; sagacity in planning. 6 a person etc. of unusual beauty. 7 what is seen on a television screen; television images collectively. --v.tr. see or present in or as in a vision. Phrases and idioms: field of vision all that comes into view when the eyes are turned in some direction. vision-mixer a person whose job is to switch from one image to another in television broadcasting or recording. Derivatives: visional adj. visionless adj. Etymology: ME f. OF f. L visio -onis (as VISIBLE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Vision Vi"sion, n. [OE. visioun, F. vision, fr. L. visio, from videre, visum, to see: akin to Gr. ? to see, ? I know, and E. wit. See Wit, v., and cf. Advice, Clairvoyant, Envy, Evident, Provide, Revise, Survey, View, Visage, Visit.] 1. The act of seeing external objects; actual sight. Faith here is turned into vision there. --Hammond. 2. (Physiol.) The faculty of seeing; sight; one of the five senses, by which colors and the physical qualities of external objects are appreciated as a result of the stimulating action of light on the sensitive retina, an expansion of the optic nerve. 3. That which is seen; an object of sight. --Shak. 4. Especially, that which is seen otherwise than by the ordinary sight, or the rational eye; a supernatural, prophetic, or imaginary sight; an apparition; a phantom; a specter; as, the visions of Isaiah. The baseless fabric of this vision. --Shak. No dreams, but visions strange. --Sir P. Sidney. 5. Hence, something unreal or imaginary; a creation of fancy. --Locke. Arc of vision (Astron.), the arc which measures the least distance from the sun at which, when the sun is below the horizon, a star or planet emerging from his rays becomes visible. Beatific vision (Theol.), the immediate sight of God in heaven. Direct vision (Opt.), vision when the image of the object falls directly on the yellow spot (see under Yellow); also, vision by means of rays which are not deviated from their original direction. Field of vision, field of view. See under Field. Indirect vision (Opt.), vision when the rays of light from an object fall upon the peripheral parts of the retina. Reflected vision, or Refracted vision, vision by rays reflected from mirrors, or refracted by lenses or prisms, respectively. Vision purple. (Physiol.) See Visual purple, under Visual.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Vision Vi"sion, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Visioned; p. pr. & vb. n. Visioning.] To see in a vision; to dream. For them no visioned terrors daunt, Their nights no fancied specters haunt. --Sir W. Scott.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(visions) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Your vision of a future situation or society is what you imagine or hope it would be like, if things were very different from the way they are now. I have a vision of a society that is free of exploitation and injustice... That's my vision of how the world could be... N-COUNT: usu N of n 2. If you have a vision of someone in a particular situation, you imagine them in that situation, for example because you are worried that it might happen, or hope that it will happen. He had a vision of Cheryl, slumped on a plastic chair in the waiting-room... Maybe you had visions of being surrounded by happy, smiling children. = image N-COUNT: usu N of n 3. A vision is the experience of seeing something that other people cannot see, for example in a religious experience or as a result of madness or taking drugs. It was on 24th June 1981 that young villagers first reported seeing the Virgin Mary in a vision. N-COUNT 4. Your vision is your ability to see clearly with your eyes. It causes blindness or serious loss of vision... = sight N-UNCOUNT 5. Your vision is everything that you can see from a particular place or position. Jane blocked Cross's vision and he could see nothing... = view 6. see also tunnel vision

Easton's Bible Dictionary

(Luke 1:22), a vivid apparition, not a dream (comp. Luke 24:23; Acts 26:19; 2 Cor. 12:1).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

vizh'-un (chazon, chizzayon, mar'ah; horama, optasia): Psychologists find that man is prevailingly and persistently "eye-minded." That is, in his waking life he is likely to think, imagine and remember in terms of vision. Naturally then, his dreaming is predominantly visual; so strongly visual, we are told, that it is not rare to find dreams defined as "trains of fantastic images." Whether man was made this way in order that God might communicate with him through dreams and visions is hardly worth debating; if the records of human life, in the Bible and out of it, are to be trusted at all, there is nothing better certified than that God has communicated with man in this way (Ps 89:19; Pr 29:18; compare Am 8:11,12; Ho 12:10). If one is disposed to regard the method as suited only to primitive peoples and superstitious natures, it still remains true that the experience is one associated with lives and characters of the most saintly and exalted kind (1Sa 3:1; Jer 1:11; Eze 1:1; Da 2:19; Ac 9:10; 10:3; 16:9).

The vision may come in one's waking moments (Da 10:7; Ac 9:7); by day (Cornelius, Ac 10:3; Peter, Ac 10:9 ff; compare Nu 24:4,16) or night (Jacob, Ge 46:2); but commonly under conditions of dreaming (Nu 12:6; Job 4:13; Da 4:9). The objects of vision, diverse and in some instances strange as they are, have usually their points of contact with experiences of the daily life. Thus Isaiah's vision of the seraphim (Isa 6:2) was doubtless suggested by familiar figures used in the decoration of the temple at Jerusalem; Paul's "man of Macedonia" (Ac 16:9) had its origin in some poor helot whom Paul had seen on the streets of Troas and who embodied for him the pitiful misery of the regions across the sea; and "Jacob's ladder" (Ge 28:12) was but a fanciful development of the terraced land which he saw sun-glorified before him as he went to sleep. Among the recurring objects of vision are natural objects--rivers, mountains, trees, animals--with which man has daily and hourly association.

The character of the revelation through vision has a double aspect in the Biblical narrative. In one aspect it proposes a revelation for immediate direction, as in the ease of Abram (Ge 15:2 and frequently); Lot (Ge 19:15); Balaam (Nu 22:22), and Peter (Ac 12:7). In another aspect it deals with the development of the Kingdom of God as conditioned by the moral ideals of the people; such are the prophetic visions of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Micah, and the apoealypses of Daniel and John. The revelation for immediate direction has many correspondences in the life of the devout in all ages; the prophetic vision, dealing in a penetrating way with the sources of national growth and decay, has its nearest approach in the deliverances of publicists and statesmen who are persuaded that the laws of God, as expressed in self-control, truth, justice, and brotherly love, are supreme, and that the nations which disregard them are marked for ultimate and speedy extinction.

From the nature of the vision as an instrument of divine communication, the seeing of visions is naturally associated with revivals of religion (Eze 12:21-25; Joe 2:28; compare Ac 2:17), and the absence of visions with spiritual decline (Isa 29:11,12; La 2:9; Eze 7:26; Mic 3:6).

One may see visions without being visionary in the bad sense of that word. The outstanding characters to whom visions were vouchsafed in the history of Israel--Abraham, Moses, Jacob, David, Isaiah, Jesus and Paul--were all men of action as well as sentiment, and it is manifest from any fair reading of their lives that their work was helped and not hindered by this aspect of their fellowship with God. For always the vision emphasizes the play of a spiritual world; the response of a man's spirit to the appeal of that world; and the ordering of both worlds by an "intelligent and compelling Power able to communicate Himself to man and apparently supremely interested in the welfare of man.

Charles M. Stuart

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Sight, seeing. 2. Sight, faculty of seeing. 3. Appearance. 4. Apparition, ghost, spectre, phantom, phantasm, chimera, illusion, supernatural appearance.

Moby Thesaurus

Masan, Vorstellung, apocalypse, apparition, appearance, astral, astral spirit, bad dream, bamboozlement, banshee, befooling, bluffing, brainchild, brown study, bubble, calculated deception, chimera, circumvention, conceive, concept, conception, conceptualization, conning, control, daydream, deceiving, deception, deceptiveness, defrauding, delirium, delusion, delusiveness, departed spirit, disembodied spirit, dream, dupery, duppy, dybbuk, eidetic image, eidolon, enmeshment, ensnarement, entanglement, entrapment, envisage, envisaging, envision, envisioning, epitome, eye, eyeful, eyesight, fallaciousness, fallacy, false image, falseness, fancy, fantasque, fantasy, feature, fiction, figment, figure, flimflam, flimflammery, fond illusion, fooling, foresight, foresightedness, form, ghost, grateful dead, guide, hallucination, hant, haunt, hoodwinking, idea, idle fancy, idolum, illusion, image, imagery, imagery study, imagination, imagine, imaging, imagining, imagism, imagistic poetry, immateriality, incorporeal, incorporeal being, incorporeity, incubus, insight, insubstantial image, invention, kidding, larva, lemures, lifelike image, maggot, make-believe, manes, materialization, mental image, mental picture, mental representation, mirage, muse, myth, nightmare, objectification, oni, oracle, outwitting, overreaching, perception, perspective, phantasm, phantasma, phantasmagoria, phantom, phasm, phenomenon, picture, picturing, pipe dream, plan, poem, poetic imagery, poltergeist, presence, prophecy, putting on, realize, revenant, reverie, romance, scheme, seeing, self-deception, shade, shadow, shape, shrouded spirit, sick fancy, sight, snow job, song and dance, specter, spectral ghost, spirit, spoofery, spoofing, spook, sprite, subterfuge, swindling, theophany, thick-coming fancies, thing of beauty, trickiness, tricking, trip, understanding, unsubstantiality, vapor, victimization, view, visual image, visualization, visualize, waking dream, walking dead man, wandering soul, whim, whimsy, wildest dream, wildest dreams, willful misconception, wishful thinking, word-painting, wraith, zombie