surreal
Americanadjective
-
of, relating to, or characteristic of surrealism, an artistic and literary style; surrealistic.
-
having the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream; unreal; fantastic.
surreal complexities of the bureaucracy.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of surreal
First recorded in 1935–40; back formation from surrealism ( def. ); see sur- 1 ( def. ), real 1 ( def. )
Explanation
If you see a goldfish fly out of a melting clock and offer you tango lessons, you’re having a surreal experience! Either that or you’re asleep and dreaming. Things that are surreal combine unrelated elements to create a bizarre scene. The adjective surreal comes from Surrealism, a movement that produced films, writing, painting, and other art forms that often contained irrational, disjointed images. So, surreal describes something that’s a bizarre mix of elements, often jarring and seemingly nonsensical. Images can be surreal, like the melting clocks in Salvador Dali's paintings, but so can strange, dream-like moments in everyday life.
Vocabulary lists containing surreal
Vocabulary from the Introduction to "Reality is Broken" by Jane McGonigal
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Grade 9, List 5
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The Things They Carried
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The current Surreal revival continues apace, especially evident in presentations by Shanghai galleries.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 3, 2025
“The Surreal Life” mushed Brigitte Nielsen and Flavor Flav together in its third season, a bizarre coupling that inspired “Strange Love” and a whopping assortment of spinoffs and related shows.
From Salon • Jul. 24, 2025
Surreal is an appropriate description for the life Couch has lived.
From BBC • Dec. 25, 2023
Smash Mouth embraced “All Star”’s ubiquity and the opportunities that came with it, with Harwell stepping outside of the group to appear on the sixth season of MTV’s “The Surreal Life” in 2006.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 4, 2023
Surreal characters, simple controls and a catchy soundtrack turned the 2004 PlayStation 2 title into a masterpiece.
From New York Times • Jul. 28, 2023
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
