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 Empires is surreal and gripping, a novelist’s telling of the disorientation and violence of imperial conquest. — James Folta, Literary Hub, 5 Oct. 2026 At least for now, this surreal, convoluted saga has come to a pause. — Mattia Ferraresi, Air Mail, 3 Oct. 2026 Weiner, with Bayer, participated in Radax’s surreal film Sonne halt! — Francesca Aton, ARTnews.com, 2 Oct. 2026 For Farrar, now 38, unintentionally becoming the Nostradamus of a surreal and often very dumb political era has been a bizarre experience — haunting, even. — David MacK, CNN Money, 1 Oct. 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 industrial revolutions of the past produced enormous value alongside bankruptcies, dislocations, and periods of irrational exuberance.
    — Brian Solis, Forbes.com, 5 Oct. 2026
  • If anyone can reconstruct Apéry’s reasoning, the odd values of zeta may finally be proven irrational.
    — Lyndie Chiou, Scientific American, 2 Oct. 2026
Definition of irrational
Adjective
  • One of those weird lizard things from NBC’s very similar Surface, a 2005 drama mostly, if barely, remembered by television critics?
    — Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 8 Oct. 2026
  • The matches were entertaining, in a weird, raw kind of way—slapstick football.
    — Vanda Mayer, New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of weird
Adjective
  • The small army at Kostabi World turned out images of featureless characters moving through strange, otherworldly scenes, caught between intimacy, alienation, and the discomfort of contemporary life.
    — Robb Report, Robb Report, 9 Oct. 2026
  • The first bit of growth might be especially strange-looking, says Sutcliffe.
    — Maggie Ryan, Flow Space, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of strange
Adjective
  • Then there’s the Tesseract, which takes the scooter formula and crams it with an almost unreasonable amount of technology.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 3 Oct. 2026
  • But several individually reasonable events, viewed together and over time, can tell an unreasonable story.
    — Shahen Minasyan, Forbes.com, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of unreasonable
Adjective
  • Alongside Kardashian, Watts, Nash-Betts and Paulson, the series stars Teyana Taylor, Matthew Noszka and Glenn Close, who all one-up each other with deliriously absurd lines of dialogue.
    — Nick Vivarelli, Variety, 6 Oct. 2026
  • The title comes from a phrase that became part of his creative vocabulary and began appearing in sketches whenever an absurd situation called for a perfectly incredulous response.
    — Preezy Brown, VIBE.com, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of absurd
Adjective
  • Atomic hydrogen’s unusual reactivity could potentially be useful in other areas of organic chemistry and, over the longer term, biological sciences.
    — Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 9 Oct. 2026
  • The unusual diversion also led to discussion among travelers online, some of whom shared their own experiences with restroom problems aboard flights.
    — Kelly McGreal, FOXNews.com, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of unusual
Adjective
  • Functional performance has always been counted in throughput, cost per transaction and cycle time, and those measures become close to meaningless once the routine work runs itself.
    — Charisma Glassman, Forbes.com, 2 Oct. 2026
  • If all of City’s results are to be scrapped this season, next season, or in four seasons to come, then whatever happens in the meantime is somewhat meaningless.
    — Ben Church, CNN Money, 30 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 11 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

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

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of galore

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

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

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

The Words of the Week - Oct. 9

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

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
a cup of tea and a golf ball on tee side by side
Quiz: Sounds Like... Choose the word that sounds like it fits the clue...
See All