What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Surreal vs Imaginary - What's the difference?

surreal | imaginary |

As adjectives the difference between surreal and imaginary

is that surreal is resembling a dream: fantastic and incongruous while imaginary is existing only in the imagination.

As nouns the difference between surreal and imaginary

is that surreal is (math) surreal number while imaginary is imagination; fancy.

surreal

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Resembling a dream: fantastic and incongruous

    • Related terms

    * real

    Derived terms

    * surrealism * surrealist * surreality * surreally * surreal number

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (math) surreal number
    • ----

    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)