English
reality
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ɹiˈælɪti/, /ɹiˈæləti/
Noun

reality (uncountable)

  1. The state of being actual or real.
    The reality of the crash scene on TV dawned upon him only when he saw the victim was no actor but his friend.
    • A man very often fancies that he understands a critic, when in reality he does not comprehend his meaning.
    • 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, OCLC 5661828 ↗:
      As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish, […]. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get. […] 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.
  2. A real entity, event or other fact.
    The ultimate reality of life is that it ends in death.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book 7”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:
      And to realities yield all her shows.
    • My neck may be an idea to you, but it is reality to me.
  3. The entirety of all that is real.
  4. An individual observer's own subjective perception of that which is real.
  5. (obsolete) Loyalty; devotion.
    • To express our reality to the emperor.
  6. (legal, obsolete) Realty; real estate.
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