'imaginary creature' is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It can be used to describe a creature that does not exist in reality, but only in the imagination. Example: "The book was filled with vivid illustrations of imaginary creatures, from fire-breathing dragons to talking unicorns." In this example, 'imaginary creatures' refers to all the fantastical beings depicted in the book.
Shakespeare's Dallas disclaimer is undone, though, by the fact that Puck – a sprite, an imaginary creature – delivers it.
The absolutely original artist is an extremely rare and possibly imaginary creature, living in some isolated habitat where no previous works or traditions have left any impression.
The bunyip was an imaginary creature from aboriginal legend, sometimes described as an imposter inhabiting swamps and billabongs.The Courier Mail, an influential tabloid in Brisbane owned by Rupert Murdoch, was more savage.
Mr. Acconci has designed an installation in the lobby in which spiraling chambers filled with water and fish will lead to a stage; Mr. Murakami is creating a large sculpture of an imaginary creature, and Ms. Skoglund will design one of the holes of the golf course.
In a recent paper, Michael P. Lynch, a philosopher at the University of Connecticut, entertained the idea of a "phenomenal pickpocket," an imaginary creature, like Apollo the thief, who distracts your attention while he removes your qualia, turning you into what's known in the trade as a philosophical zombie.
Erich, the central character, is a little boy living in the Manor, a grand house close to the Gulf of Finland and surrounded, beyond its disciplined parkland and lake, by a forest once inhabited by bears and still haunted by Forest Uncle, the King of the Forest, who may be an imaginary creature, a phantom, but who is real to Erich.
Imagined worlds are full of imaginary creatures.
Tomorrow only, imaginary creatures -- Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck -- will visit the zoo's cafe.
I steel my nerves, ignore the imaginary creatures lurking in the night, and lead my daughters forward into the darkness.
This explains a curious aspect of "Terrors and Wonders," the extent to which imaginary creatures fall into familiar categories.
None of the "commissars" and "imperialists" in his tableau of cultural dictatorship are named, and that is for the simple reason they are imaginary creatures.
