hyperreality

British

/ ˌhaɪpərɪˈælɪtɪ /

noun

an image or simulation, or an aggregate of images and simulations, that either distorts the reality it purports to depict or does not in fact depict anything with a real existence at all, but which nonetheless comes to constitute reality

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

What she discovered, with close friends and heartbroken strangers, was a sort of hyperreality.

From BBC • Apr. 2, 2026

Cultural theorist Mark Fisher, in his 2009 book "Capitalist Realism," describes this moment in history as one in which "hyperreality" prevails.

From Salon • Jan. 17, 2024

There’s a hyperreality to it, where you’re like, ‘it’s not really that — he must have Photoshopped that. It can’t be that way.’

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 10, 2023

Yes, there is a Dogme looseness in how she shoots, but there is always a tension between the rawness she gets to and a forensic hyperreality.

From The Guardian • Jun. 16, 2020

This disparity—what one group of sociologists calls “The Hobbit hyperreality paradox”—has no simple explanation.

From Slate • Oct. 20, 2016

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023