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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Recent Examples of surreal
Stylistically, these books are often surreal and oneiric, with the gauzy texture of childhood reverie.
—
Becca Rothfeld, New Yorker, 1 June 2026
The hotel is near surreal valleys, honeycombed with cave dwellings and frescoed Byzantine cave churches.
—Anya Von Bremzen, Travel + Leisure, 31 May 2026
Throughout the film, there's evidence that something sinister is lurking among the surreal rooms.
—Emily Blackwood, PEOPLE, 30 May 2026
The online stuff is surreal to me.
—Mikey O'Connell, HollywoodReporter, 28 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for surreal
Becca Rothfeld, New Yorker, 1 June 2026
The hotel is near surreal valleys, honeycombed with cave dwellings and frescoed Byzantine cave churches.
—Anya Von Bremzen, Travel + Leisure, 31 May 2026
Throughout the film, there's evidence that something sinister is lurking among the surreal rooms.
—Emily Blackwood, PEOPLE, 30 May 2026
The online stuff is surreal to me.
—Mikey O'Connell, HollywoodReporter, 28 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for surreal
Recent Examples of Synonyms for surreal
Adjective
-
Carpenter says the disturbing encounters left her fearful for her safety and that of relatives living with her, as police label the suspect’s fixation irrational and increasingly dangerous.—
Emily St. Martin,
Los Angeles Times,
2 June 2026
-
Great startups often look irrational at first.—
Anna Demeo,
Forbes.com,
31 May 2026
Adjective
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The movie goes from this weird, seedy love motel to the industrial backwaters, and these long walks and talks down empty streets.—
Georg Szalai,
HollywoodReporter,
1 June 2026
-
The show hinges on finding an ordinary person who, plunged into a group of people he’s never met before, doesn’t reject them as weird or objectionable but embraces them at some basic human level.—
Matthew Carey,
Deadline,
1 June 2026
Adjective
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The author could herself be considered predatorial, having written her own children in as the books’ protagonists, saddling them with a strange kind of fame.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
2 June 2026
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This strange occurrence echoes what happened at the top of the dot-com bubble 26 years ago.—
Lim Hui Jie,
CNBC,
2 June 2026
Adjective
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Last year’s conference-final loss to the Florida Panthers — an ugly result for an overmatched roster that had spent the regular season outkicking its coverage, maximizing its performance and raising expectations to an unreasonable level — is on that ledger, too.—
Sean Gentille,
New York Times,
28 May 2026
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That lingering inventory, which has drawn criticism from fans who believe the list prices are unreasonable, is a principal feature of the governing body’s ticket pricing strategy.—
Sara Germano,
Sportico.com,
28 May 2026
Adjective
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There is always the possibility that something absurd might occur — the equivalent of Neymar’s 2017 move to Paris Saint-Germain, for instance — but that’s extremely unlikely.—
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor,
New York Times,
27 May 2026
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Ironically, the fears of two Republicans advancing were driven by Democratic data vendor Paul Mitchell, who built a prediction machine using absurd inputs like betting odds and polls that cannot account for things like rape allegations.—
Matt Fleming,
Oc Register,
27 May 2026
Adjective
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Since arriving at the zoo, the buffalo has attracted large crowds and sparked debate over its unusual nickname.—
Michael Sinkewicz,
FOXNews.com,
4 June 2026
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What’s unusual is to see these elements presented so grandly on a stage as big as The Bushnell’s and presented in a manner that doesn’t compromise a dark tale of anger, revenge, dangerous romance, desperation and survival.—
Christopher Arnott,
Hartford Courant,
4 June 2026
Adjective
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There’s a list of parts made from recycled bits which is fairly meaningless when the exercise is all at the concept level but nevertheless shows where GM’s thinking is heading.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
2 June 2026
-
The advertised base price is meaningless.—
Christopher Elliott,
USA Today,
2 June 2026
Adjective
-
Bainbridge knew about secrets and unreasoning shame.—
Christopher Tayler,
Harpers Magazine,
27 Jan. 2026
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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 6 Jun. 2026.
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