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Unreal vs Imaginary - What's the difference?

unreal | imaginary | Related terms |

Imaginary is a antonym of unreal.



As adjectives the difference between unreal and imaginary

is that unreal is fake; not real while imaginary is existing only in the imagination.

As a noun imaginary is

imagination; fancy.

unreal

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • fake; not real
  • * 1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)
  • *:"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."
  • (slang) larger or more fantastic than typical of real life.
    • I just had an unreal hamburger.

    Antonyms

    * real

    Anagrams

    * * *

    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)