Imagery--words that create a picture. Edgar Allan Poe was a master of imagery. In "The Fall of the House of Usher," for example, such pictures of a "black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled luster by the dwelling," create images in the mind of trepidation and gloom.

Such images can be created by using figures of speech such as similes, metaphors, personification, and assonance.

Imagery is any poetic reference to the five senses: sight, touch, smell, hearing, taste.

Imagery is also the term used to refer to the creation (or re-creation) of any experience in the mind - visual, kinaesthetic, or using any other sense. It is a cognitive process employed by most if not all humans. When thinking about a previous or upcoming event people commonly use imagery. As an illustration, one may ask "what colour are your living room walls?" The answer to this question is commonly retrieved by using imagery, i.e. by 'seeing' one's living room walls.

Research areas concerned with imagery include cognitive neuroscience, and sport/exercise/dance psychology.