Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The quality or state of being actual or true.
  • noun One, such as a person, an entity, or an event, that is actual.
  • noun The totality of all things possessing actuality, existence, or essence.
  • noun That which exists objectively and in fact.
  • adjective Relating to or being a genre of television or film in which a storyline is created by editing footage of people interacting or competing with one another in unscripted, unrehearsed situations.
  • idiom (in reality) In fact; actually.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as realty.
  • noun The being real; truth as it is in the thing; objective validity; independence of the attributions of individual thought; positively determinate being.
  • noun That which is real or genuine; something that really is or exists, as opposed to what is imagined or pretended; an essential verity or entity, either in fact or in representation.
  • noun In law, same as realty.
  • noun Synonyms and Verity (see real). Reality means that a thing certainly is; truth applies to the correctness of what is said or believed about the thing, the conformity of such report or belief to reality. The reality of a danger; the actuality of the arrival of help; the truth about the matter.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The state or quality of being real; actual being or existence of anything, in distinction from mere appearance; fact.
  • noun That which is real; an actual existence; that which is not imagination, fiction, or pretense; that which has objective existence, and is not merely an idea.
  • noun obsolete Loyalty; devotion.
  • noun (Law) See 2d Realty, 2.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state of being actual or real.
  • noun A real entity, event or other fact.
  • noun The entirety of all that is real.
  • noun An individual observer's own subjective perception of that which is real.
  • noun obsolete loyalty; devotion
  • noun law, obsolete realty; real estate

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the state of being actual or real
  • noun the state of the world as it really is rather than as you might want it to be
  • noun the quality possessed by something that is real
  • noun all of your experiences that determine how things appear to you

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Recorded since 1550 as a legal term in the sense of “fixed property” (compare real estate), from Medieval Latin realitas, from Late Latin realis ("real"); the sense “real existence” is attested from 1647.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word reality.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • for a nitnoy peek into the 'reality' behind reality, see I plus Not-I equals Everything.

    December 22, 2006

  • 'I reject your reality and subsitute my own!' -Mythbusters

    February 19, 2008