REALITY

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does reality mean? 

• REALITY (noun)
  The noun REALITY has 4 senses:

1. all of your experiences that determine how things appear to you

2. the state of being actual or real

3. the state of the world as it really is rather than as you might want it to be

4. the quality possessed by something that is real

  Familiarity information: REALITY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REALITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

All of your experiences that determine how things appear to you

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

reality; world

Context example:

for them demons were as much a part of reality as trees were

Hypernyms ("reality" is a kind of...):

experience (the content of direct observation or participation in an event)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reality"):

real life; real world (the practical world as opposed to the academic world)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The state of being actual or real

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

realism; reality; realness

Context example:

the reality of his situation slowly dawned on him

Hypernyms ("reality" is a kind of...):

actuality (the state of actually existing objectively)

Attribute:

existent; real (being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verified existence; not illusory)

unreal (lacking in reality or substance or genuineness; not corresponding to acknowledged facts or criteria)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reality"):

fact (an event known to have happened or something known to have existed)

Antonym:

unreality (the state of being insubstantial or imaginary; not existing objectively or in fact)

Derivation:

real (being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verified existence; not illusory)

real (coinciding with reality)

real (not to be taken lightly)

real (being or reflecting the essential or genuine character of something)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The state of the world as it really is rather than as you might want it to be

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

businessmen have to face harsh realities

Hypernyms ("reality" is a kind of...):

actuality (the state of actually existing objectively)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reality"):

historicalness (the state of having in fact existed in the past)

Derivation:

real (capable of being treated as fact)

real (being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verified existence; not illusory)

real (not to be taken lightly)

real (being or reflecting the essential or genuine character of something)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The quality possessed by something that is real

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("reality" is a kind of...):

corporality; corporeality; materiality; physicalness (the quality of being physical; consisting of matter)

Antonym:

unreality (the quality possessed by something that is unreal)

Derivation:

real (having substance or capable of being treated as fact; not imaginary)

 Context examples 

He suddenly seemed to arouse himself: the conviction of the reality of all this seized him.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There was no pause of the realities wherein he moved.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He would have to learn the reality of a thing before he could put his faith into it.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“Oh, the mystery!” he answered, coming back with a start to the realities of life.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was something fearful in the reality of it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Had she known her sister sought to tear her from such prospects and such realities as these, what would have been her sensations?

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

A feeling of altered reality characterized by a feeling of unreality, or being unreal.

(Derealisation, NCI Thesaurus)

A mental phenomenon occurring during sleep in which images, emotions, and thoughts are experienced with a sense of reality; occurs during REM sleep.

(Dreaming, NCI Thesaurus)

You have given the name such reality of sweetness, that nothing else can now be descriptive of you.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Before, I had only imagined the wretchedness of my desolated home; the reality came on me as a new, and a not less terrible, disaster.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)