surreal

adjective

sur·​re·​al sə-ˈrē(-ə)l 

 also  -ˈrā-əl

1

: marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream

also : unbelievable, fantastic

surreal sums of money

2

: surrealistic

surreality

(ˌ)sə-rē-ˈa-lə-tē 

noun

surreally adverb

Did you know?

In 1924 a group of European poets, painters, and filmmakers founded a movement that they called Surrealism. Their central idea was that the unconscious mind (a concept Sigmund Freud had recently made famous) was the source of all imagination, and that art should try to express its contents. The unconscious, they believed, revealed itself most clearly in dreams. The Surrealist painters included René Magritte, Joan Miró, and Salvador Dalí, whose "limp watches" painting became the best-known Surrealist image of all. Since those years, we've used surreal to describe all kinds of situations that strike us as dreamlike. And even though the Surrealist movement ended long ago, surrealism now seems to be everywhere—not just in painting, literature, and movies but also in blogs, video games, and graphic novels.

Examples of surreal in a Sentence

Despite all the hassle, though, I would not want an ordinary name. I know of one other person in the world who shares my name, first and last. I know nothing about her except that she lived in New York at the same time I did, and that she and I subscribed to a few of the same publications. I found myself in the surreal position of having to explain to circulation departments that I was, in fact, me, and not that other version of me on the West Side. —Johnna Kaplan, Newsweek, 3 Mar. 2008

Films aren't just a part of life for people in India; they are a way of life. The over-the-top, surreal dance numbers in nearly every Bollywood film often make no sense in relation to the story, but no one seems to be complaining. —Shashank Samant, The Out Traveler, May/June 2005

The movie achieves a truly rare mix of the absurd, the surreal, and the heartfelt. Improbably, its wacked-out premise and structural hilarity concoct a melancholy meditation on love, loss, and memory, while delivering a message—subversive to our culture's therapeutic optimism—about the tragedy of healing. —Rand Richards Cooper, Commonweal, 23 Apr. 2004

The whole thing was completely surreal.

Recent Examples on the Web

KoKo’s Earth Control (1928) Imaginative, sassy, surreal and nonlinear characterize films from the Fleischer Studios, which battled the Walt Disney Co. for animation supremacy during the 1920s and ’30s, with their competing styles delighting audiences and leading to many technical advancements. —Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Dec. 2024

Matthieu’s garments while at the house were imaginative and surreal without being too on the nose. —Robyn Mowatt, Essence, 13 Dec. 2024

Acutely self-aware but nevertheless unapologetic, Vasquez steers his surreal and cynical midnight treasure just to the point of mainstream acceptability here. —Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 13 Dec. 2024

Her images are often surreal and focused on symbolism within nature. —Bakr Muhammad, Los Angeles Times, 13 Dec. 2024

Word History

Etymology

back-formation from surrealism

First Known Use

1937, in the meaning defined at sense 2