brainstorm

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: brain=storm

CIDE DICTIONARY

brainstorm, n. 

 the clear (and often sudden) understanding of a complex situation; a sudden brilliant insight.  [WordNet 1.5]

brainstorm, v. t. & i. 

 to try to solve a problem by discussing it exhaustively in an intense group meeting encouraging uninhibited and spontaneous contributions from all members.  [WordNet 1.5]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

brainstorm, n.
1 a violent or excited outburst often as a result of a sudden mental disturbance.
2 colloq. mental confusion.
3 US a brainwave.
4 a concerted intellectual treatment of a problem by discussing spontaneous ideas about it.

Derivative

brainstorming n. (in sense 4).

THESAURUS

brainstorm

absurd idea, afebrile delirium, automatic response, blind impulse, boutade, brain wave, brainchild, bright idea, bright thought, brilliant idea, capriccio, caprice, conceit, crank, craze, crazy idea, crotchet, deliriousness, delirium, drive, fad, fancy, fantastic notion, fantasy, flash, fleeting impulse, flimflam, fool notion, freak, freakish inspiration, good idea, gut response, harebrained idea, humor, impulse, incoherence, inspiration, instinct, involuntary impulse, kink, lingual delirium, maggot, megrim, natural impulse, notion, passing fancy, quick hunch, quirk, ranting, raving, reflex, sudden thought, toy, urge, vagary, wandering, whim, whim-wham, whimsy

ROGET THESAURUS

brainstorm

Imagination

VB imagine, fancy, conceive, idealize, realize, dream, dream of, dream up, give to airy nothing a local habitation and a name, create, originate, devise, invent, coin, fabricate, improvise, strike out something new, set one's wits to work, strain one's invention, crack one's invention, rack one's brains, ransack one's brains, cudgel one's brains, excogitate, brainstorm, give play, give the reins, give a loose to the imagination, give fancy, indulge in reverie, visualize, envision, conjure up a vision, fancy oneself, represent oneself, picture, picture-oneself, figure to oneself, vorstellen, float in the mind, suggest itself.