real-world

adjective

ˈrē(-ə)l-ˈwər(-ə)ld 

: existing or occurring in reality : drawn from or drawing on actual events or situations : real-life

a real-world example

… the complex relationship between a word and the real-world thing it labels.

—Jean Aitchison

Digital objects aren't bound by the same constraints as real-world objects—that is, broadly speaking, the whole point of digital objects—but they're often made to look like real-world objects anyway.

—Lev Grossman

… combine the rigors of academics with the soothing realities of real-world applications.

—Ricardo Bilton

The paintings are essentially abstract, but they don't feel abstract. They feature, besides passages of figurative drawing, a real-world aura …

—Peter Schjeldahl

Examples of real-world in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Pups with excitable and reactive temperaments were especially responsive to on-screen content, suggesting that many canines may interpret moving images much like real-world events. —Lucy Notarantonio, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Oct. 2025

Otherwise, the false claims by today’s hyper-confident chatbots and the wave of hyper-realistic fake videos will continue to exacerbate polarization, threaten real-world violence and further undermine our threatened democracy. —Miami Herald, 10 Oct. 2025

Taken together, Showing Up and Night Moves thematically foreshadow Reichardt’s critique of James in The Mastermind by purposely pushing real-world problems to the margins. —Robert Daniels, Time, 10 Oct. 2025

Ares instead collapses the two, transporting technology from the other universe—like the light cycle, a futuristic motorcycle that’s become a franchise icon—onto real-world streets. —David Sims, The Atlantic, 10 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1963, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for real-world

• lifeworld
• unfurled
• curled
• furled
• hurled
• knurled
• swirled
• twirled
• whirled
• whorled
• world
• netherworld