as in illusion
a conception or image created by the imagination and having no objective reality
a sci-fi author who seems to have preferred the unrealities of his own fiction to the realities of the world about him
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of unreality
Schwarzenegger’s hand getting enmeshed in the T-1000’s liquid skull emphasizes unreality, yet every time a Terminator throws the other against another machine, it’s done with the strength of human force.
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Vikram Murthi, Vulture, 4 Mar. 2024
But scientists are finding these imaginings useful, as the machines dream up riots of unrealities that have helped researchers track cancer, design drugs, invent medical devices, uncover weather phenomena and even win a Nobel Prize.
—Natasha Frost, New York Times, 24 Dec. 2024
Four centuries after Galileo, the United States has become an epicenter of unreality.
—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 25 Nov. 2024
Through its official media, ISIS stoked support around the world for its vivid unreality—the Salafi jihadist utopia—and presented a comprehensive and exactingly consistent picture of what life there was supposedly like.
—Charlie Winter, Foreign Affairs, 31 Jan. 2017
See All Example Sentences for unreality
Vikram Murthi, Vulture, 4 Mar. 2024
But scientists are finding these imaginings useful, as the machines dream up riots of unrealities that have helped researchers track cancer, design drugs, invent medical devices, uncover weather phenomena and even win a Nobel Prize.
—Natasha Frost, New York Times, 24 Dec. 2024
Four centuries after Galileo, the United States has become an epicenter of unreality.
—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 25 Nov. 2024
Through its official media, ISIS stoked support around the world for its vivid unreality—the Salafi jihadist utopia—and presented a comprehensive and exactingly consistent picture of what life there was supposedly like.
—Charlie Winter, Foreign Affairs, 31 Jan. 2017
See All Example Sentences for unreality
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unreality
Noun
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Yet there are filmmakers who fall prey to the illusion too.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
28 Mar. 2025
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On far too many occasions, Watson chose deceit over candor, grasping for the illusion of business success and personal acclaim at any cost.—
Peter White,
Deadline,
28 Mar. 2025
Noun
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In 1958, a provincial party chairman weighed in on the term fantasy in a roundtable essay that was published in Sae sedae.—
H.M.A. Leow,
JSTOR Daily,
22 Mar. 2025
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Instead of obsessively trying to recreate the original, Lowery takes the bones of the first film — a classic boy and his dragon tale — and crafts something fresh, a charming environmentalist fantasy that’s both gentle and heartfelt.—
Staff Author,
EW.com,
22 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Getting a glimpse into Garten’s life story is fascinating, and her cheerful demeanor and can-do attitude will galvanize you to chase your dreams.—
Meg Zukin,
Los Angeles Times,
22 Mar. 2025
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Steven joined his father’s team as a walk-on in 2019 and shared during media day that playing for his dad was always a dream of his.—
Alexandra Hurtado,
People.com,
22 Mar. 2025
Noun
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The entries are a mixture of sense memory, adolescent embarrassment, nostalgic fashions and foods, daydreams, and anything else that falls through the sieve of Brainard’s disarmingly casual syntax.—
David S. Wallace,
The New Yorker,
19 Mar. 2025
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Panda Bear: Sinister Grift [Domino] Noah Lennox brings the sunshine—and, for the first time on a Panda Bear album, nearly all of his Animal Collective bandmates—on Sinister Grift, an album of spongy psychedelic daydreams and melodies that yearn and enchant.—
Madison Bloom,
Pitchfork,
28 Feb. 2025
Noun
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That would be you, the audience, fed a royal jelly concocted of dream, fantasy, myth, popcorn, even delusion.—
Tom Gliatto,
People.com,
26 Mar. 2025
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Many of these protagonists endure the tedium and humiliation of involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations, losing days and years to paralyzing inertia, and experiencing terrifying delusions of persecution and betrayal.—
Moira Donegan,
New Yorker,
26 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Others are built but end up looking very different to the original vision.—
Tom Burrows,
The Athletic,
23 Mar. 2025
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Detective Lee Yeon-hui (played by Shin Hyun-been of Hospital Playlist and Reborn Rich) is assigned to the case and also chases after the suspect, all the while being tormented by visions of her dead sister.—
Regina Kim,
Forbes,
23 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unreality.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unreality. Accessed 2 Apr. 2025.
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