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Wish vs Real - What's the difference?

wish | real |

As nouns the difference between wish and real

is that wish is a desire, hope, or longing for something or for something to happen while real is real (former currency of spain).

As a verb wish

is (label) to desire; to want.

wish

English

Noun

(es)
  • a desire, hope, or longing for something or for something to happen
  • an expression of such a desire etc.
  • the process of expressing or thinking about such a desire etc. (often connected with ideas of magic and supernatural power(s)
  • the thing desired or longed for
  • Your dearest wish will come true.
  • * 1901 , , (w, The Monkey's Paw)
  • "I suppose all old soldiers are the same," said Mrs White. "The idea of our listening to such nonsense! How could wishes be granted in these days? And if they could, how could two hundred pounds hurt you, father?" / "Might drop on his head from the sky," said the frivolous Herbert.
  • (Sussex) a water meadow.
  • Usage notes

    * Collocates with make for the common expression make a wish . See

    Derived terms

    (Terms derived from the noun "wish") * death wish * best wishes * good wishes * make a wish * wishbone * wishful * wish list/wishlist/wish-list * your wish is my command

    See also

    * precatory * velleity

    Verb

    (es)
  • (label) To desire; to want.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • I would not wish / Any companion in the world but you.
  • *
  • , passage=Yesterday, upon the stair / I met a man who wasn’t there / He wasn’t there again today / I wish', I ' wish he’d go away …}}
  • To hope (for a particular outcome).
  • * (John Arbuthnot) (1667-1735)
  • This is as good an argument as an antiquary could wish for.
  • * 1901 , , (w, The Monkey's Paw)
  • Mr. White took the paw from his pocket and eyed it dubiously. "I don't know what to wish for, and that's a fact," he said slowly. "It seems to me I've got all I want."
  • To bestow (a thought or gesture) towards (someone or something).
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • I would not wish them to a fairer death.
  • * Bible, (Psalms) xl. 14
  • Let them be driven backward, and put to shame, that wish me evil.
  • To request or desire to do an activity.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)
  • , title= Geothermal Energy , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.}}
  • (label) To recommend; to seek confidence or favour on behalf of.
  • * (Ben Jonson)
  • I was wished to your worship by a gentleman.

    Usage notes

    * In sense 3, this is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See

    Derived terms

    (Terms derived from the verb "wish") * as you wish * half wish * I wish * unwish * well-wisher * wisher * you wish

    real

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) reel, from .

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • True, genuine, not merely nominal or apparent.
  • * 2007 , Jim Kokoris, The Rich Part of Life: A Novel (ISBN 1429976438), page 179:
  • [T]he real reason he didn't come was because he was scared of flying[.]
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= 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.}}
  • 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) 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.}}
  • Genuine, unfeigned, sincere.
  • * Milton:
  • Whose perfection far excelled / Hers in all real dignity.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= 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
  • Actually being, existing, or occurring; not fictitious or imaginary.
  • a description of real life
  • * Milton:
  • I waked, and found / Before mine eyes all real , as the dream / Had lively shadowed.
  • 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
  • Many are perfect in men's humours that are not greatly capable of the real part of business.
  • Absolute, complete, utter.
  • (slang)
  • Synonyms
    * true, actual * authentic, genuine, actual * authentic, genuine, heartfelt, true, actual * (that has physical existence) actual
    Antonyms
    * 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) imaginary
    Derived 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-world

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (US, colloquial) Really, very.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • 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.
  • *
  • 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."
  • (obsolete) A realist.
  • (Burton)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (reales)
  • Former unit of currency of Spain and Spain's colonies.
  • A coin worth one real.
  • Etymology 3

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

  • 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.
  • Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A unit of currency used in Brazil since 1994. Symbol: .
  • * 2011 , Perry Anderson, "Lula's Brazil", London Review of Books , 33.VII:
  • 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.
  • A coin worth one real.
  • Synonyms
    * (old Portuguese and Brazilian unit of currency)
    Meronyms
    * (current Brazilian unit of currency)

    Statistics

    *