unreal
Americanadjective
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not real or actual.
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imaginary; fanciful; illusory; delusory; fantastic.
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lacking in truth; not genuine; false; artificial.
unreal propaganda serving as news.
adjective
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imaginary or fanciful or seemingly so
an unreal situation
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having no actual existence or substance
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insincere or artificial
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unreal
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.
"It seems unreal -- how is it possible that rather than a single pathway we see all these effects happening simultaneously and only in tumors and not in healthy tissues?"
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
"We know basketball is huge in America, obviously not so much in the UK. It was unreal… I might even start following basketball now because of it."
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026
“It’s just so unreal, especially being with someone like hours before they pass away.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
Mr. Ridgway combines an exact sense of setting—one could take a walking tour of the streets he names—with the spare, unreal atmosphere of an allegory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
Harry felt strangely unreal, and even more so when he saw Buckbeak a few yards away, tethered to a tree behind Hagrid’s pumpkin patch.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
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.
