: an insect in its final, adult, sexually mature, and typically winged state
2
: an idealized mental image of another person or the self
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebOther species, such as grasshoppers and dragonflies, experience incomplete, or simple, metamorphosis, which involves three life stages—egg, larva or nymph, and adult or imago. Liz Langley, National Geographic, 11 Aug. 2020 Newbell, who is Black, had spoken about imago Dei -- the idea that all humans, of all races, are made in the image and likeness of God. Daniel Burke, CNN, 10 July 2020
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from New Latin imāgō, going back to Latin imāgin-, imāgō "representation, semblance, image entry 1"
Note: As a descriptive term for insects apparently introduced by linnaeus in Systema naturae, 12th edition, vol. 1, part 2 (Stockholm, 1767), p. 535. Linnaeus's conception was that the imago was the true representation of the creature, the earlier stages of larva (Latin larva, taken to mean "ghost") and pupa (Latin pūpa "doll") being in a sense illusory.