UNREAL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does unreal mean? 

• UNREAL (adjective)
  The adjective UNREAL has 4 senses:

1. lacking in reality or substance or genuineness; not corresponding to acknowledged facts or criteria

2. not actually such; being or seeming fanciful or imaginary

3. contrived by art rather than nature

4. lacking material form or substance; unreal

  Familiarity information: UNREAL used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNREAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking in reality or substance or genuineness; not corresponding to acknowledged facts or criteria

Context example:

unreal propaganda serving as news

Similar:

envisioned; pictured; visualised; visualized (seen in the mind as a mental image)

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)

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)

unrealistic (not realistic)

insincere (lacking sincerity)

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 2

Meaning:

Not actually such; being or seeming fanciful or imaginary

Context example:

the unreal world of advertising art

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)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Contrived by art rather than nature

Synonyms:

artificial; unreal

Context example:

artificial sweeteners

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)

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)

conventionalised; conventionalized; stylised; stylized (using artistic forms and conventions to create effects; not natural or spontaneous)

Also:

unreal (lacking in reality or substance or genuineness; not corresponding to acknowledged facts or criteria)

counterfeit; imitative (not genuine; imitating something superior)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Lacking material form or substance; unreal

Synonyms:

insubstantial; unreal; unsubstantial

Context example:

an insubstantial mirage on the horizon

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)

 Context examples 

His voice sounded hoarse and unreal, and he had spoken with apparent effort.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It seemed to say—'My fine visions are all very well, but I must not forget they are absolutely unreal.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But it was very unreal at the time.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It's rot; it's absurd; it's unreal.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A feeling of altered reality characterized by a feeling of unreality, or being unreal.

(Derealisation, NCI Thesaurus)

Another happy evening, quite as unreal as all the rest of it, and I steal into the usual room before going away.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The unexpected had swept its wizardry over the face of things, changing the perspective, juggling values, and shuffling the real and the unreal into perplexing confusion.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

I turned to her, and looking in her eyes, said:—"But you? It is for you that I fear!" whereat she laughed—a laugh, low and unreal, and said:—Fear for me! Why fear for me?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And since I cannot do it, Jane, it must have been unreal.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)