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unreal

unreal

28 4.2
Not real, like something from a dream
  • adjective
  • /ʌnˈrɪəl/
translation icon : irreal
  • The dream was so vivid that it felt unreal, as if I were living in another world.
  • unreal world
  • unreal images
  • seems unreal

So nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal ultimately exists.

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Examples

  • Here we are finally led, in the words of the Upanishads, from the unreal to the real.

    Academic text (1990)
  • There was a sky so blue it seemed unreal, like the sky in a magazine ad.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • You want to get back to this unreal life that you had before.

  • I mean, it's unreal the amount of space there is to spread out.

  • I mean, it's just unreal how much we're going to get this year.

  • The afternoon seemed flat and metallic, unreal even while it happened.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • A world so unreal and yet, at once, so frightening.

  • Vicky, too, was lost in memories of a night that now seemed more and more unreal.

  • It got so I couldn't tell the real from the unreal.

  • The rest of her seemed unreal and doll-like, weighed down by the heaviness of her gown.

    Fiction book (1990)

Synonyms

fictional
vsunreal
106 3.4

Made up in stories or in your mind, not real

adds senses of strangeness or dreamlike quality beyond story invention
surreal
vsunreal
81 7.0

Strange like a dream and not real

includes that dreamlike strangeness but also simple nonexistence without confusion
fictitious
vsunreal
31 5.1

Not real and made up

also covers strange or dreamlike sensations, not only invented facts
fantastical
vsunreal
21 8.0

Very strange and like something made up in dreams or stories

also covers milder oddness or simple lack of reality rather than fantasy extremes
illusory
vsunreal
12 7.0

Seeming to be real but not really there

is broader, including plain imagination and strange, dreamlike sensations
dreamlike
vsunreal
9 5.7

Having a calm, unreal quality as if you are half asleep

also refers to plain nonexistence, not only dreamy atmosphere
insubstantial
vsunreal
9 6.8

Not solid or strong and not filling

can mean that or simply describe strange, dreamlike unreality without weakness
phantasmal
vsunreal
  • Literature
1 9.9

Looking like a ghost and seeming unreal

covers both ghostly looks and broader senses of not being real
chimerical
vsunreal
  • Literature
1 9.9

Only in the imagination and very unlikely to happen

can mean simple nonexistence or dreamlike feeling, not only extreme improbability
unsubstantial
vsunreal
1 7.3

Not solid or real and having little value

is broader and includes strange or dreamlike qualities, not only lack of substance
imaginary
vsunreal
1 5.5

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

is broader, also covering strange, dreamlike appearances or feelings
phantasmic
vsunreal
  • Literature
9.7

Having a quality like a dream or a ghost that seems unreal

covers that ghostlike feeling but also general not real or imaginary states
phantasmatic
vsunreal
  • Literature
9.9

Being unreal and like a dream

is wider, applying also to simple nonexistence or oddness
phantomlike
vsunreal
7.8

Appears like a ghost, not solid or easy to see

is more general, applying to nonreality beyond ghostlike appearance
irreal
vsunreal
  • Specialized
9.9

Not real and only imagined in the mind, often used in grammar for events that did not happen

also applies to odd, dreamlike appearances beyond hypothetical or grammatical cases
unlifelike
vsunreal
8.5

Not like real life and missing natural feeling

also covers pure nonexistence or surreal dreamlike quality beyond mere unreality of appearance

Antonyms

1.0

Happening in real life, not imagined

How Real

otherworldly
  • Literature
36 7.8
surreal
81 7.0
unreal
28 4.2
imaginary
217 3.2
made-up
  • UK
236 4.6

Surface Forms

unreal positive
unrealer comparative
unrealest superlative

Morphology

unreal = real (transparent) = un + real

Direct negation formed with the productive prefix 'un-' on 'real'; meaning 'not real' or imaginary is directly inferable.

Etymology

Unreal comes from the un- part meaning 'not' and real meaning 'actual' or 'true'. So unreal literally means 'not real', which helps you think of something as strange, dreamlike, or imagined.