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.

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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 Against the surreal backdrop of the island’s monumental Moai statues, the pair begin reckoning with their murky shared past. — Patrick Brzeski, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2026 On Day 4, a surreal nine minutes and 48 seconds on Stadium 17, the art of scheduling tetris and making sense of three surprise results. — Rebecca Tauber, New York Times, 3 Sep. 2026 Watching a giant blue bull move through the Nevada desert feels surreal, and with Ukrainian collaborators building it, the piece strongly shows cultural identity and resilience. — Jim Dobson, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2026 Ballet served as the starting point, with its codes translated across footwear and apparel into a more expansive, surreal sphere. — Jaden Thompson, Footwear News, 28 Aug. 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
  • But the question remained unsolved for polygons with irrational angles.
    — Sam Macdonald, Scientific American, 14 Aug. 2026
  • As a result, the argument goes, today's spending is irrational because the hardware would need to be replaced too frequently to generate an attractive return on investment, known as ROI.
    — , CNBC, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of irrational
Adjective
  • The weird and wild part is this guy somehow made George Van Haltren famous.
    — Jayson Stark, New York Times, 4 Sep. 2026
  • This game feels just like a Planet Money episode wrapped in a weird little box.
    — Cooper Katz McKim, NPR, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of weird
Adjective
  • In a strange quirk of the 2026-27 fixture list, Leeds have been sent to the scenes of those crimes in quick succession once again.
    — Beren Cross, New York Times, 6 Sep. 2026
  • In short, unruly crowds, strange smells, intrusive noise and late nights are not unique inventions of the TikTok era.
    — Douglas Robson, Los Angeles Times, 6 Sep. 2026
Definition of strange
Adjective
  • Your expectations of your stepsons aren’t unreasonable at all.
    — R. Eric Thomas, Mercury News, 27 Aug. 2026
  • If the prosecution’s version of the evidence is reasonable and the defense’s is unreasonable, then that is not reasonable doubt.
    — Christine Pelisek, PEOPLE, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of unreasonable
Adjective
  • The Appalachian Trail is absolutely brutal The distance alone is obviously absurd, but mileage is only part of what makes the AT such a beast.
    — Amber Harding OutKick, FOXNews.com, 2 Sep. 2026
  • The selection process does not judge whether a study is admirable or absurd, good or bad.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of absurd
Adjective
  • If a machine encounters something unusual or gets stuck, someone monitoring the fleet can briefly intervene until the autonomous system is ready to take back over.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 6 Sep. 2026
  • The changes occurred amid an unusual rollout of the blog post.
    — Emily Forlini, Fortune, 5 Sep. 2026
Definition of unusual
Adjective
  • The grand scale of cosmic time reminds her (and us) that social mores and strictures are tiny, meaningless things, that what matters is passion and freedom.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 4 Sep. 2026
  • The world’s increasingly pro-Chinese attitude is not meaningless.
    — Adam Y. Liu, Foreign Affairs, 2 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
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Cite this Entry

“Surreal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/surreal. Accessed 7 Sep. 2026.

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