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Imaginary vs Reality - What's the difference?

imaginary | reality |

As nouns the difference between imaginary and reality

is that imaginary is imagination; fancy while reality is the state of being actual or real.

As an adjective imaginary

is existing only in the imagination.

imaginary

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • existing only in the imagination
  • * Addison
    • Wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer / Imaginary ills and fancied tortures?
  • (mathematics) of a number, having no real part; that part of a complex number which is a multiple of the square root of -1.

    • Derived terms

    * imaginarily * imaginariness

    Noun

    (imaginaries)
  • Imagination; fancy.
  • * 2002 , , The Great Nation , Penguin 2003, p. 324:
    • By then too Mozart's opera, from Da Ponte's libretto, had made Figaro a stock character in the European imaginary and set the whole Continent whistling Mozartian airs and chuckling at Figaresque humour.
  • (mathematics) An imaginary quantity.

    • External links

    * (Imaginary number)

    reality

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • The state of being actual or real.
  • :
  • *(Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
  • *:A man fancies that he understands a critic, when in reality he does not comprehend his meaning.
  • *
  • *:As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish,I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Joseph Stiglitz)
    • , volume=188, issue=26, page=19, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Globalisation is about taxes too , passage=It is time the international community faced the reality : we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. It is a tax system that is pivotal in creating the increasing inequality that marks most advanced countries today
  • A real entity, event or other fact.
  • :
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:And to realities yield all her shows.
  • *(James Beattie) (1735-1803)
  • *:My neck may be an idea to you, but it is reality to me.
  • The entirety of all that is real.
  • An individual observer's own subjective perception of that which is real.
  • (lb) Loyalty; devotion.
  • *(Thomas Fuller) (1606-1661)
  • *:To express our reality to the emperor.
  • Realty; real estate.

    • Synonyms

    * actuality * real world

    Derived terms

    * reality check * reality show * reality television * virtual reality

    Related terms

    * realia * realism * realize * realty

    See also

    * tao

    Anagrams

    * irately ----