1,400 new words in our dictionary! — Parasocial, glow-up, promposal & more
1,400 new words in our dictionary! — More

surreal

adjective

Definition of surrealnext
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.

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of surreal But what really makes Walker’s story all the more surreal-special are the twists that made his football future appear dubious. — Kansas City Star, 18 Sep. 2026 In late August, Luke Agada logs onto Zoom from his studio in Chicago, with two new paintings of surreal domestic landscapes mounted on the wall behind him. — Kristen Tauer, Footwear News, 18 Sep. 2026 The moment was especially surreal for Mason, who recently turned 30 and lives in the small country town of Inverell in northern New South Wales. — Jordan Greene, PEOPLE, 15 Sep. 2026 The surreal French film Delicatessen, cowritten and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) and Marc Caro, points its off-kilter lens at the oddball residents of an apartment building that’s scraping by post-apocalypse. — Sara Netzley, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for surreal
Recent Examples of Synonyms for surreal
  1. irrational
  2. weird
  3. strange
  4. unreasonable
  5. absurd
  6. unusual
  7. meaningless
  8. unreasoning
Adjective
  • The fact, in other words, that there often isn’t a right answer or a clear victor—and that rational people are subject to irrational forces within and above them.
    — Max Norman, Harpers Magazine, 22 Sep. 2026
  • Mathematicians have long known that some polynomial equations have only rational solutions, while others have irrational solutions (such as ).
    — Lyndie Chiou, Scientific American, 22 Sep. 2026
Definition of irrational
Adjective
  • Beck was playing a shabby, malnourished musician living in a shack who acts as an emissary of a weird celebrity cult.
    — Josephine Reisman, Vulture, 24 Sep. 2026
  • But, in a weird sort of way, that approach advances the point critics have about Williams.
    — Armando Salguero OutKick, FOXNews.com, 23 Sep. 2026
Definition of weird
Adjective
  • In a small town, several dead people are brought back to life through a strange ritual involving burning duck manure.
    — Katherine Brodsky, Variety, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Back outside, the strangest part of the scene might have been how normal everything seemed to the people wearing crimson and blue.
    — Taylor Eldridge, Kansas City Star, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of strange
Adjective
  • Accurate voter lists and lawful mail-voting options are not unreasonable demands.
    — Lee Moak, New York Daily News, 18 Sep. 2026
  • The court ultimately upheld the search warrant, finding probable cause and concluded that obtaining the data remotely was not an unreasonable search.
    — Jihun Joun, The Conversation, 17 Sep. 2026
Definition of unreasonable
Adjective
  • Of course now, in the comfort of modernity, the whole idea seems absurd.
    — Jason O'Bryan, Robb Report, 19 Sep. 2026
  • Saying white players such as Clark or Bueckers should pay homage to their Black peers is as absurd as saying Steph Curry and Jalen Brunson should pay homage to their tall peers.
    — Matt Calkins OutKick, FOXNews.com, 19 Sep. 2026
Definition of absurd
Adjective
  • The move is unusual due to the more than six-month-long conflict between Iran and the United States and no sign that agreements to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or return to talks on Iran's nuclear program are close.
    — September 18, CBS News, 18 Sep. 2026
  • The team also needed to confirm that the unusual structures were genuine electron behavior rather than artifacts created by the microscope.
    — Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of unusual
Adjective
  • Having a talent advantage is meaningless if the Horned Frogs aren’t focused on the opponent directly in front of them.
    — Steven Johnson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Eventually, my mother comes downstairs again and puts her arms around him and holds him, whispering something to him, words that to me are meaningless and incomprehensible.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 17 Sep. 2026
Definition of meaningless
Adjective
  • But in each event—in the living act, the undoubted deed—there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 6 July 2026
  • Roosevelt surely understood that nameless, unreasoning, unjustified fear cannot be eradicated.
    — New York Times, New York Times, 9 June 2026
Definition of unreasoning

Browse Nearby Words

surprisingly
surreal
surreality
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Surreal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/surreal. Accessed 26 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of confabulate

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Words of the Week - Sept. 25
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
image of the words cracker fly and sale arranged in a triangle with the word fire in the middle
Triple Play Quiz Find the word that pairs with each of the three g...
See All