1. An apparatus for retrieving images comprising: an image database in which image data and natural language data indicating a visual impression of an image prepared based on the image data are stored in a correlated form; a natural language input section for inputting natural language data indicating a text for retrieval; and a retrieving section for collating natural language data inputted from said natural language input section to natural language data stored in said image database and extracting image data relating to natural language data having a common visual impression from said image database according to a result of collation; wherein said retrieving section extracts a plurality of image data in an ascending order from image data having higher similarity according to a result of collation.