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Glite Dictionary
irreal

irreal

9.9
Not real and only imagined in the mind, often used in grammar for events that did not happen
  • adjective
  • /ɪˈrɪəl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : irreal
  • The artist created an irreal depiction of a city floating in the sky.

Examples

  • In his dream, he wandered through an irreal landscape where anything was possible.

  • They are distorted not so much by their fetishized nature, as Marx would have it, but by the irreal sensory space in which they are displayed.

    Academic text (2000)

  • These pages are linked internally in a formal manner; both are negative images and thus refer back to the bleeding away of the positive image into an irreal space visible in the first pages of the book.

    Academic text (2000)

  • Her stories often took place in irreal worlds filled with magical creatures.

Synonyms

unreal
vsirreal
28 4.2

Not real, like something from a dream

is more neutral and used for imagined or hypothetical cases and grammar
imaginary
vsirreal
1 5.5

Ideas or images that exist only in the mind and are not real

is also used to refer to hypothetical situations and grammatical moods

Antonyms

real
∞ 1.0

Happening in real life, not imagined

How Real

real
∞ 1.0
unreal
28 4.2
imaginary
217 3.2
irreal
  • Specialized
9.9

Surface Forms

irreal positive

Morphology

irreal = real (transparent) = ir + real

The word 'irreal' is transparently formed from the prefix 'ir-' meaning 'not' and the adjective 'real'.

Etymology

Irreal comes from the prefix ir- meaning 'not' and real meaning 'real' or 'fact'. It literally means 'not real', so it is used for things that are imagined or hypothetical, and in grammar it names moods that show wishes or events that did not happen.