Real vs Pretty - What's the difference?
real | pretty |
True, genuine, not merely nominal or apparent.
* 2007 , Jim Kokoris, The Rich Part of Life: A Novel (ISBN 1429976438), page 179:
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Genuine, not artificial, counterfeit, or fake.
* {{quote-magazine, title=A better waterworks, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
, page=5 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist)
Genuine, unfeigned, sincere.
* Milton:
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
, volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Actually being, existing, or occurring; not fictitious or imaginary.
* Milton:
That has objective, physical existence.
(economics) Having been adjusted to remove the effects of inflation; measured in purchasing power .
(economics) Relating to the result of the actions of rational agents; relating to neoclassical economic models as opposed to Keynesian models.
(mathematics, of a number) Being either a rational number, or the limit of a convergent infinite sequence of rational numbers: being one of a set of numbers with a one-to-one correspondence to the points on a line.
(legal) Relating to immovable tangible property.
* Francis Bacon
Absolute, complete, utter.
(slang)
(US, colloquial) Really, very.
A commodity; see reality.
(grammar) One of the three genders that the common gender can be separated into in the Scandinavian languages.
(mathematics) A real number.
*
(obsolete) A realist.
Former unit of currency of Spain and Spain's colonies.
A coin worth one real.
A unit of currency used in Portugal and its colonies from 1430 until 1911, and in Brazil from 1790 until 1942
A coin worth one real.
A unit of currency used in Brazil since 1994. Symbol: .
* 2011 , Perry Anderson, "Lula's Brazil", London Review of Books , 33.VII:
A coin worth one real.
Cunning; clever, skilful.
* 1877 , George Hesekiel and Bayard Taylor, Bismarck his Authentic Biography , page 380:
Pleasant in sight or other senses; attractive, especially of women or children.
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=17 * 2010 , Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian , 4 Feb 2010:
Of objects or things: nice-looking, appealing.
* 2010 , Lia Leendertz, The Guardian , 13 Feb 2010:
* 1962 , "New Life for the Liberals", Time , 28 Sep 1962:
(dated) Moderately large; considerable.
*, I.2.4.vii:
*
, title= * 2004 , "Because They're Worth it", Time , 26 Jan 04:
(dated) Excellent, commendable, pleasing; fitting or proper (of actions, thoughts etc.).
* 1815 , (Jane Austen), Emma , Boston 1867, page 75:
* 1919 , (Saki), ‘The Oversight’, The Toys of Peace :
* 1926 , (Ernest Hemingway), , page 251:
(ironic) Awkward, unpleasant.
* 1931 , "Done to a Turn", Time , 26 Jan 1931:
Somewhat, fairly, quite; sometimes also (by meiosis) very.
* 1723 , Charles Walker, Memoirs of Sally Salisbury , V:
* 1859 , (Charles Darwin), The Origin of Species , I:
* , chapter=1
, title= * 2002 , , The Great Nation , Penguin 2003, page 539:
Something that is pretty.
* 1939 , Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf, ''
To make pretty; to beautify
* {{quote-book, 2007, Eric Knight, Lassie Come-Home
, passage=He sat on the hearth rug and began prettying the dog's coat.}}
As nouns the difference between real and pretty
is that real is real (former currency of spain) while pretty is something that is pretty.As an adjective pretty is
cunning; clever, skilful.As an adverb pretty is
somewhat, fairly, quite; sometimes also (by meiosis) very.As a verb pretty is
to make pretty; to beautify.real
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) reel, from .Adjective
(en-adj)- [T]he real reason he didn't come was because he was scared of flying[.]
Travels and travails, passage=Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.}}
citation, passage=An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.}}
- Whose perfection far excelled / Hers in all real dignity.
The tao of tech, passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you
- a description of real life
- I waked, and found / Before mine eyes all real , as the dream / Had lively shadowed.
- Many are perfect in men's humours that are not greatly capable of the real part of business.
Synonyms
* true, actual * authentic, genuine, actual * authentic, genuine, heartfelt, true, actual * (that has physical existence) actualAntonyms
* imaginary, unreal * artificial, counterfeit, fake, sham * feigned, sham, staged * (that has physical existence) fictitious, imaginary, made-up, pretend (informal) * (relating to numbers with a one-to-one correspondence to the points on a line) imaginaryDerived terms
* for real * get real * keep it real * real analysis * real asset * real axis * real body * real capital * real deal/the real deal * real estate * real focus * real image * real income * reality * real life * real line * really * real market * real matrix * real McCoy * realness * real number * real option * real part * real presence * real property * real return * real soon now * real storage * real stuff * real tennis * real thing/the real thing * real time * real-valued * real variable * real wages * real world/real-worldAdverb
(-)Noun
(en noun)- There have been several classical constructions of the reals that avoid these prob-
lems, the most famous ones being Dedekind Cuts'' and ''Cauchy Sequences , named
respectively for the mathematicians Richard Dedekind (1831 - 1916) and Augustine
Cauchy (1789 - 1857). We will not discuss these constructions here, but will use a
more modern one developed by Gabriel Stolzenberg, based on "interval arithmetic."
- (Burton)
Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Noun
(reales)Etymology 3
From (etyl) .Noun
Noun
(en-noun)- Within weeks of this bombshell, an aide to the brother of the chairman of the PT, José Genoino, was arrested boarding a flight with 200,000 reais in a suitcase and $100,000 in his underpants.
Synonyms
* (old Portuguese and Brazilian unit of currency)Meronyms
* (current Brazilian unit of currency)Statistics
*pretty
English
Alternative forms
* pooty (nonstandard) * purdy (nonstandard) * (l) (dialectal) * (l), (l) (obsolete)Adjective
(er)- In the end, however, it was a very pretty shot, right across the chasm; killed first fire, and the brute fell headlong into the brook [...].
citation, passage=The face which emerged was not reassuring. […]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.}}
- To escape a violent beating from sailors to whom he has sold a non-functioning car, Jerry takes his stepfamily for a holiday in a trailer park miles away, where, miraculously, young Nick meets a very pretty young woman called Sheeni, played by Portia Doubleday.
- 'Petit Posy' brassicas [...] are a cross between kale and brussels sprouts, and are really very pretty with a mild, sweet taste.
- Damned by the Socialists as "traitors to the working class," its leaders were decried by Tories as "faceless peddlers of politics with a pretty little trinket for every taste."
- they flung all the goods in the house out at the windows into the street, or into the sea, as they supposed; thus they continued mad a pretty season […].
Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.}}
- "What did you do to your hair?" The answer could be worth a pretty penny for L'Oreal.
- Some people are surprised, I believe, that that the eldest was not [named after his father], but Isabella would have him named Henry, which I thought very pretty of her.
- ‘This new fashion of introducing the candidate's children into an election contest is a pretty one,’ said Mrs. Panstreppon; ‘it takes away something from the acerbity of party warfare, and it makes an interesting experience for the children to look back on in after years.’
- "Oh, Jake." Brett said, "we could have had such a damned good time together." Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me. "Yes", I said. "Isn't it pretty to think so?"
- His sadistic self-torturings finally landed him in a pretty mess: still completely married, practically sure he was in love with Tillie, he made dishonorable proposals of marriage to two other women.
Quotations
* (ironic use: ) * 1995 , Les Standiford, Deal to die for , page 123: *: "[...] you can still see where the kid's face is swollen up from this talk: couple of black eyes, lip all busted up, nose over sideways," Driscoll shook his head again, "just a real pretty picture."Antonyms
* uglyDerived terms
* just another pretty face * not a pretty sight * not just a pretty face * PDQ * prettify * prettiness * pretty as a picture * pretty boy * pretty-faced wallaby * Pretty Good Privacy * pretty much * pretty pass * pretty penny * pretty please * Pretty Polly * pretty-pretty * pretty-spoken * purdy * sitting prettyAdverb
(-)- By the Sheets you have sent me to peruse, the Account you have given of her Birth and Parentage is pretty exact [...].
- It seems pretty clear that organic beings must be exposed during several generations to the new conditions of life to cause any appreciable amount of variation [...].
Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.}}
- The Revolutionary decade was a pretty challenging time for business.
Usage notes
* When particularly stressed, the adverb (term) serves almost to diminish the adjective or adverb that it modifies, by emphasizing that there are greater levels of intensity.Derived terms
* pretty much * pretty wellNoun
(pretties)- "We'll stop at the knife store a look at the sharp pretties .
- I'll get you, my pretty , and your little dog, too!
Verb
citation
