as in irrational
very strange or unusual; having the quality of a dream
a surreal atmosphere at the festival The whole situation was completely surreal.
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of surreal
For Siragusa, everything that’s transpired since the robbery has felt surreal.
—
Patricia Hernandez, Rolling Stone, 24 Mar. 2025
To be there from the beginning of this incredibly powerful thing and see it through…surreal.
—Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 23 Mar. 2025
It’s been a surreal and rewarding experience for the players who opted to stay in Fort Worth despite the lack of early success.
—Steven Johnson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 21 Mar. 2025
Most capture mundane experiences, impressive in their hyperrealistic way, but some are sublime, or surreal, or place you in a morally challenging position.
—Anna Russell, The New Yorker, 14 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for surreal
Patricia Hernandez, Rolling Stone, 24 Mar. 2025
To be there from the beginning of this incredibly powerful thing and see it through…surreal.
—Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 23 Mar. 2025
It’s been a surreal and rewarding experience for the players who opted to stay in Fort Worth despite the lack of early success.
—Steven Johnson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 21 Mar. 2025
Most capture mundane experiences, impressive in their hyperrealistic way, but some are sublime, or surreal, or place you in a morally challenging position.
—Anna Russell, The New Yorker, 14 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for surreal
Recent Examples of Synonyms for surreal
Adjective
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But there is plenty of institutional trading interest in digital assets, perhaps in part because for many hedge funds volatility equates to profit making opportunities, even if the trading is irrational.—
Javier Paz,
Forbes.com,
29 Mar. 2025
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Amsterdam set up a hotline last month to report concerns about irrational behavior.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
28 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Gargantuan, weird outcomes can start small in the tech world, and often innocently.—
Jaron Lanier,
The New Yorker,
22 Mar. 2025
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The trendy beauty treatment is all the rage on TikTok, and it’s garnered tons of attention for being a weird way to reap anti-aging benefits.—
Kleigh Balugo,
StyleCaster,
21 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Sure, the plot’s kind of a mess, but warrior Alice is an empowering turn while Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter and Helena Bonham Carter’s big-headed Red Queen are splendidly strange.—
Brian Truitt,
USA TODAY,
22 Mar. 2025
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The movie business and the television business are strange.—
Tim Lammers,
Forbes,
21 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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The words were harsh but the logic was not unreasonable.—
George Caulkin,
The Athletic,
24 Mar. 2025
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This would not be an unreasonable proposition, considering the U.S. already pledged a security guarantee to Ukraine upon its return of all nuclear warheads to Russia by 1996, based on the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances.—
Seung-Whan Choi,
Chicago Tribune,
23 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Every major hospital show has confronted this tonal clash throughout its run; stalwarts such as ER and Grey’s Anatomy have depended on ever larger and more absurd set pieces (tank invasions, ferry disasters, helicopter crashes) to ratchet up the action.—
David Sims,
The Atlantic,
28 Mar. 2025
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With stories of family chaos, missteps and her devoted dog Chunk, Chelsea hilariously tackles the world’s most absurd travel situations.—
Ashlee Conour,
Chicago Tribune,
28 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Cruise cancellations are relatively unusual but can happen for a number of other reasons, including when a ship is chartered or needs to go to dry dock.—
Nathan Diller,
USA Today,
28 Mar. 2025
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The contract also maintains its unusual provision allowing Sanders to disclose any athletically related outside income to his superiors verbally, thus enabling him to follow NCAA bylaws while ensuring that no public paper trail is created for these earnings.—
Daniel Libit,
Sportico.com,
28 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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The law, after all, is meaningless if no one can enforce it.—
Ian Millhiser,
Vox,
18 Mar. 2025
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That figure is meaningless, Reyes said, because there was no comparison offered to the deployment rate of servicemembers overall.—
Maureen Groppe,
USA TODAY,
16 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Surreal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/surreal. Accessed 3 Apr. 2025.
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