as in illusion
a conception or image created by the imagination and having no objective reality
a sci-fi author who seems to have preferred the unrealities of his own fiction to the realities of the world about him
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Recent Examples of unreality
The movie itself is something of a trip; everything feels coated in a faint, menacing sheen of unreality, as if a slasher movie were just a wild twist or two away.
—
Justin Chang, New Yorker, 16 May 2025
But as with its aww-shucks hero, there’s more to it than meets the eye; something much stranger lurks behind the slight Twilight Zone unreality of its very movie-ish Midwest.
—A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 28 Apr. 2025
As the novel progresses, this sense of unreality sharpens.
—Jordan Kisner, The Atlantic, 4 Apr. 2025
All those books teaching parents how to take care of their children—the first year, the first eighteen months, the first five or ten years—none of them addresses this difficulty: for parents and for children, the border between reality and unreality is not always clearly marked.
—Yiyun Li, The New Yorker, 23 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unreality
Justin Chang, New Yorker, 16 May 2025
But as with its aww-shucks hero, there’s more to it than meets the eye; something much stranger lurks behind the slight Twilight Zone unreality of its very movie-ish Midwest.
—A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 28 Apr. 2025
As the novel progresses, this sense of unreality sharpens.
—Jordan Kisner, The Atlantic, 4 Apr. 2025
All those books teaching parents how to take care of their children—the first year, the first eighteen months, the first five or ten years—none of them addresses this difficulty: for parents and for children, the border between reality and unreality is not always clearly marked.
—Yiyun Li, The New Yorker, 23 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unreality
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unreality
Noun
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The duo pushes the concept of illusion versus reality to the extreme, personally and professionally, until tragedy reframes and opens a mystery surrounding their last fateful Las Vegas show.—
Rosy Cordero,
Deadline,
10 Oct. 2025
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While magicians use illusions to make objects float, physicists pursue levitation for its practical advantages.—
Sujita Sinha,
Interesting Engineering,
10 Oct. 2025
Noun
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For the lesbians who love history and maybe have read the sapphic fantasy novel The Starving Saints, Julie d’Aubigny is the perfect look.—
Samantha Allen,
Them.,
10 Oct. 2025
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The film, a tender and romantic fantasy movie from director Kogonada, opened well below expectations.—
Clayton Davis,
Variety,
10 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Though her identity is not at first known to Benedict, the woman turns out to be Sophie Baek, a secretive maid with big dreams.—
Ryan Schwartz,
TVLine,
13 Oct. 2025
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With each brick laid at The Site, The Toy will document dad’s decades-long dream.—
Dana Harris-Bridson,
IndieWire,
13 Oct. 2025
Noun
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In pieces on patriotism as a kind of madness, on the long history of Polish and Russian colonizations and cultural appropriations of Ukraine, on the ways communities fantasize and share their daydreams, and others, Janion creates wormholes between past and present.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Oct. 2025
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The series can feel like a collective daydream.—
Mark Travers,
Forbes.com,
16 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Don’t let delusions (especially those planted by gaslighters) guide your thoughts and heart.—
Lisa Stardust,
Refinery29,
14 Oct. 2025
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Chatbots are known to validate users’ obsessions and delusions, and most of the litigation around this phenomenon has so far pertained to self-harm, as in the suits Jain has brought against OpenAI and Character Technologies.—
Miles Klee,
Rolling Stone,
11 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Cal Fire helicopter pilots will be training over three nights, starting Thursday, in the Sacramento area using night-vision goggles to enhance their ability to fight wildfires in the dark.—
Rosalio Ahumada,
Sacbee.com,
10 Oct. 2025
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That vision probably inspires Bob to allow Willa to join the fight at the end of the film.—
Robert Daniels,
Time,
10 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unreality.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unreality. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.
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