| Library / English Dictionary |
UNREAL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Lacking material form or substance; unreal
Example:
an insubstantial mirage on the horizon
Synonyms:
insubstantial; unreal; unsubstantial
Classified under:
Similar:
aerial; aeriform; aery; airy; ethereal (characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; as impalpable or intangible as air)
shadowy; wraithlike (lacking in substance)
hollow (lacking in substance or character)
stringy (consisting of or containing string or strings)
Also:
immaterial; nonmaterial (not consisting of matter)
Attribute:
solidness; substantiality; substantialness (the quality of being substantial or having substance)
Derivation:
unreality (the state of being insubstantial or imaginary; not existing objectively or in fact)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Contrived by art rather than nature
Example:
artificial sweeteners
Synonyms:
artificial; unreal
Classified under:
Similar:
painted (lacking substance or vitality as if produced by painting)
near (closely resembling the genuine article)
man-made; semisynthetic; synthetic (not of natural origin; prepared or made artificially)
fake; false; faux; imitation; simulated (not genuine or real; being an imitation of the genuine article)
factitious (not produced by natural forces)
ersatz; substitute (artificial and inferior)
dummy (having the appearance of being real but lacking capacity to function)
conventionalised; conventionalized; stylised; stylized (using artistic forms and conventions to create effects; not natural or spontaneous)
celluloid; synthetic (artificial as if portrayed in a film)
cardboard; unlifelike (without substance)
bleached; colored; coloured; dyed ((used of color) artificially produced; not natural)
bionic (having particular physiological functions augmented or replaced by electronic or electromechanical components)
arranged; staged (deliberately arranged for effect)
Also:
counterfeit; imitative (not genuine; imitating something superior)
unreal (lacking in reality or substance or genuineness; not corresponding to acknowledged facts or criteria)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Lacking in reality or substance or genuineness; not corresponding to acknowledged facts or criteria
Example:
unreal propaganda serving as news
Classified under:
Similar:
make-believe; pretend (imagined as in a play)
illusive; illusory (based on or having the nature of an illusion)
illusional; illusionary (marked by or producing illusion)
hallucinatory (characterized by or characteristic of hallucination)
fantastic; fantastical (existing in fancy only)
fanciful; imaginary; notional (not based on fact; existing only in the imagination)
fabulous; mythic; mythical; mythologic; mythological (based on or told of in traditional stories; lacking factual basis or historical validity)
fabricated; fancied; fictional; fictitious (formed or conceived by the imagination)
fabled; legendary (celebrated in fable or legend)
eye-deceiving; trompe-l'oeil (creating the illusion of seeing reality)
envisioned; pictured; visualised; visualized (seen in the mind as a mental image)
dreamed (conceived of or imagined or hoped for)
Also:
supernatural (not existing in nature or subject to explanation according to natural laws; not physical or material)
artificial; unreal (contrived by art rather than nature)
counterfeit; imitative (not genuine; imitating something superior)
insincere (lacking sincerity)
unrealistic (not realistic)
Attribute:
realism; reality; realness (the state of being actual or real)
Antonym:
real (being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verified existence; not illusory)
Derivation:
unreality (the quality possessed by something that is unreal)
unreality (the state of being insubstantial or imaginary; not existing objectively or in fact)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Not actually such; being or seeming fanciful or imaginary
Example:
the unreal world of advertising art
Classified under:
Similar:
deceptive; delusory (causing one to believe what is not true or fail to believe what is true)
dreamlike; surreal (resembling a dream)
phantom (something apparently sensed but having no physical reality)
Antonym:
real (no less than what is stated; worthy of the name)
Context examples:
It is no less unreal now that I look back upon it.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
You would have compressed me into a two-by- four pigeonhole of life, where all life's values are unreal, and false, and vulgar.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
But White Fang was to have no more than a nightmare vision of the city—an experience that was like a bad dream, unreal and terrible, that haunted him for long after in his dreams.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
When little Em'ly grew more courageous, and talked (but still bashfully) across the fire to me, of our old wanderings upon the beach, to pick up shells and pebbles; and when I asked her if she recollected how I used to be devoted to her; and when we both laughed and reddened, casting these looks back on the pleasant old times, so unreal to look at now; he was silent and attentive, and observed us thoughtfully.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Everything in life seems unreal.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
His audacities of phrase struck him as grotesque, his felicities of expression were monstrosities, and everything was absurd, unreal, and impossible.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
All this life through which the electric car whirred seemed remote and unreal, and he would have experienced little interest and less shock if the great stone steeple of the church he passed had suddenly crumbled to mortar-dust upon his head.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Two o'clock and the whole corner of the peninsula was blazing with light which fell unreal on the shrubbery and made thin elongating glints upon the roadside wires.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
"Perhaps you know that lady." Gatsby indicated a gorgeous, scarcely human orchid of a woman who sat in state under a white plum tree. Tom and Daisy stared, with that peculiarly unreal feeling that accompanies the recognition of a hitherto ghostly celebrity of the movies.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
