real
UK /ɹiːl/ · US /ɹeɪˈɑl/ adjective, adverb, noun, proper noun
Forms realer realest reals reales reis reais
- adjective True, genuine, not merely nominal or apparent. “City hall has its place, but this pub is the real heart of the town.”
- adjective Genuine, not artificial, counterfeit, or fake. “This is real leather.”
- adjective Genuine, unfeigned, sincere. “These are real tears!”
- adjective Actually being, existing, or occurring; not fictitious or imaginary.
- adjective That has objective, physical existence. “No one has ever seen a real unicorn.”
- adjective (economics) Having been adjusted to remove the effects of inflation; measured in purchasing power (contrast nominal). “My dad calculated my family's real consumption per month.”
- adjective (economics) Relating to the result of the actions of rational agents; relating to neoclassical economic models as opposed to Keynesian models.
- adjective (mathematics, of a number) Being either a rational number, or the limit of a convergent infinite sequence of rational numbers: being one of a set of numbers with a one-to-one correspondence to the points on a line.
- adverb (US, colloquial) Really; very. “When I told him the truth, he got real mad.”
- noun A commodity; see realty.
- noun (grammar) One of the three genders that the common gender can be separated into in the Scandinavian languages.
- noun (mathematics, computing) A real number.
- noun (obsolete) A realist.
- noun Former unit of currency of Spain and Spain's colonies.
- noun A coin worth one real.
- noun A unit of currency used in Portugal and its colonies from 1430 until 1911, and in Brazil from 1790 until 1942.
- noun (countable) A coin worth one real.
- noun A unit of currency used in Brazil since 1994. Symbol: R$.
- proper noun (soccer) Real Madrid, a football club from Madrid.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
authentic genuine actual true heartfelt based rei real number existent tangible literal substantial material veridical very really rattling
Antonyms
imaginary nonreal unreal artificial counterfeit fake sham feigned staged fictitious made-up pretend nominal
Etymology
From Middle English real, from Old French reel, from Late Latin reālis (“actual”), from Latin rēs (“matter, thing”), from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁ís (“wealth, goods”). Doublet of realis. In modern times, likely strengthened by or conflated with the use of the prefix re-, analyzable as re- + -al.
Borrowed from Spanish real (“royal”), from Latin rēgālis (“regal, royal”). Doublet of ariary, regal, riyal, and royal.
From Portuguese real (“royal”), from Latin rēgālis (“regal; royal”). Doublet of ariary, regal, riyal, and royal.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A small Spanish silver coin; also, a denomination of money of account, formerly the unit of the Spanish monetary system.
- adjective Royal; regal; kingly. [Obs.] "The blood real of Thebes." Chaucer.
- adjective Actually being or existing; not fictitious or imaginary; as, a description of real life.
- adjective True; genuine; not artificial; counterfeit, or factitious; often opposed to ostensible; as, the real reason; real Madeira wine; real ginger.
Etymology [Sp., fr. real royal, L. regalis. See Regal, and cf. Ree a coin.]
Etymology [LL. realis, fr. L. res, rei, a thing: cf. F. réel. Cf. Rebus.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “real”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details