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
His lyrics, once steeped in political protest, began veering into surreal, layered poetry.
—
Jordan Runtagh, PEOPLE, 10 Sep. 2025
Supporting himself with a job at a hotel, Gardin served as an informal assistant to Willy Ronis, a photojournalist who elevated emotional truth over Henri Cartier-Bresson’s near-surreal geometric perfection.
—Max Norman, New Yorker, 6 Sep. 2025
Mad Max is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that is at once striking and surreal.
—Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 3 Sep. 2025
There was a surreal end to the race, with Vingegaard and Pidcock unsure of where exactly the new finish line was.
—CNN Money, 3 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for surreal
Jordan Runtagh, PEOPLE, 10 Sep. 2025
Supporting himself with a job at a hotel, Gardin served as an informal assistant to Willy Ronis, a photojournalist who elevated emotional truth over Henri Cartier-Bresson’s near-surreal geometric perfection.
—Max Norman, New Yorker, 6 Sep. 2025
Mad Max is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that is at once striking and surreal.
—Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 3 Sep. 2025
There was a surreal end to the race, with Vingegaard and Pidcock unsure of where exactly the new finish line was.
—CNN Money, 3 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for surreal
Recent Examples of Synonyms for surreal
Adjective
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Losing Fed independence is like giving free rein to emotional, irrational decision making.—
Hersh Shefrin,
Forbes.com,
8 Sep. 2025
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Maura’s performance makes Maria Angeles so magnetic and eccentric — earthily practical on some matters, dizzily irrational on others, and sympathetically true to herself on all fronts — that all the film’s other players want for detail and texture by comparison.—
Guy Lodge,
Variety,
4 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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The second reason is that these aura battler designs were very complex and full of curves as well as weird angles.—
Ollie Barder,
Forbes.com,
12 Sep. 2025
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Things get weird, however, when the lines between science fiction and fantasy start to blur.—
Richard Edwards,
Space.com,
11 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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The combination of strange comments, a clear lack of education and experience, and a disturbing personal history with mental health struggles and domestic problems doomed his campaign.—
Kimberly Ross,
The Washington Examiner,
12 Sep. 2025
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Coon admitted that their daughter has also taken up a strange favorite film.—
Avalon Hester,
PEOPLE,
12 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Russia is trying to paint Ukraine as the unreasonable party in negotiations, Ferris said.—
Lauren Kent,
CNN Money,
12 Sep. 2025
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Darryl Morin, national president of Forward Latino, a Latino advocacy group based in Franklin, Wisconsin, said the decision erodes Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.—
Francesca Pica,
jsonline.com,
9 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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There’s no denying that catfish noodling is an absurd sport.—
Natalie Krebs,
Outdoor Life,
11 Sep. 2025
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Barely any other media in recent times has given me an instant shock of glee or revulsion like this absurd anarcho-cartoon being stretched and squeezed to its most grotesque and wholesome clickbait limits.—
Kieran Press-Reynolds,
Pitchfork,
10 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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This is an unusual feature for a screen that’s designed for color-critical design tasks.—
Mark Sparrow,
Forbes.com,
14 Sep. 2025
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When Macron was here, Mick Jagger was there with his girlfriend, which is quite unusual.—
Stephanie Nolasco,
FOXNews.com,
14 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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For example, some parents may wonder if these behaviors are related to things like stimming (repetitive movement or sounds), echolalia (meaningless repetition of words), or self-regulation behaviors.—
Wendy Wisner,
Parents,
8 Sep. 2025
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The story unfolds in three distinct chapters as the crisis goes up the chain of command, with each part of the film showing how all our systems and technology are ultimately meaningless in the face of such destructive power.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
6 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Let sound political prescience but take the place of an unreasoning prejudice, and this will be done.—
Frederick Douglass,
The Atlantic,
16 Aug. 2017
Cite this Entry
“Surreal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/surreal. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
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