What does "ideation" mean?

The conceptualization of a mental image.

How do you pronounce "ideation"?

Pronounced //ˌaɪ.diˈeɪ.ʃən//.

Common synonyms include: abstract thought, act of thought, apprehension, brainwork, caliber, calibrate.

//ˌaɪ.diˈeɪ.ʃən// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Noun

1
The conceptualization of a mental image. countable, uncountable
"suicidal ideation"
2
the process of forming and relating ideas wordnet
3
The synthesis of ideas. countable, often, uncountable

"I’ll use the top concepts as a starting point for our continued ideation, sketches, sketch models, etc…"

From ideate + -ion.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.