real

comparative realer · comparative more real · superlative realest · superlative most real

1. True, genuine, not merely nominal or apparent.

   City hall has its place, but this pub is the real heart of the town.

   2 more examples

   [T]he real reason he didn't come was because he was scared of flying[.]

   2007, Jim Kokoris, The Rich Part of Life: A Novel, →ISBN, page 179

   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.

   2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55

2. Genuine, not artificial, counterfeit, or fake.

   This is real leather.

   1 more example

   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.

   2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly)

   Synonyms: authentic, genuine, actual

3. Genuine, unfeigned, sincere.

   These are real tears!

   2 more examples

   Whose perfection farr excell’d Hers in all real dignitie

   1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   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[…]"share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.

   2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27

4. Actually being, existing, or occurring; not fictitious or imaginary.

   a description of real life

   1 more example

   I waked, and found / Before mine eyes all real, as the dream / Had lively shadowed.

   1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

5. That has objective, physical existence.

   No one has ever seen a real unicorn.

   Synonyms: actual

6. economicsHaving been adjusted to remove the effects of inflation; measured in purchasing power (contrast nominal).

   What is the real GNP of this polity?

   1 more example

   My dad calculated my family's real consumption per month.

7. economicsRelating to the result of the actions of rational agents; relating to neoclassical economic models as opposed to Keynesian models.
8. mathematicsBeing 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.
9. lawRelating to immovable tangible property.

   real estate; real property

   1 more example

   Many are perfect in men's humours that are not greatly capable of the real part of business.

   1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Cunning”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC

10. Absolute, complete, utter.

    This is a real problem.

11. slangSignifying meritorious qualities or actions, especially with regard to genuineness, groundedness, and true success rather than poser imitations of success.

    I'm keeping it real.

    1. slangFirm through directness, readiness to confront.

       yo, Imma be real with u... don't ever text me again

1. UScolloquialnot comparableReally; very.

   Se looked at me real strange.

   2 more examples

   When I told him the truth, he got real mad.

   We were meeting in the Oval Office and I saw the morning news report and I just happened casually to mention to George I says- 'Well I'll betcha that President Johnson is gonna be real pleased when he finds that now they are calling me the number one bomber.' And George Christian said 'Oh don't be too sure.' He says, 'You know LBJ- he never likes to be number two.'

   1977, Nixon interviews, spoken by Richard Nixon, →OCLC

plural reals

1. A commodity; see realty.
2. grammarOne of the three genders that the common gender can be separated into in the Scandinavian languages.
3. computingA real number.

   1 more example

   There have been several classical constructions of the reals that avoid these problems, 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."

   2007, Mark Bridges, REAL ANALYSIS: A Constructive Approach, Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, page 11

4. obsoleteA realist.

   Scotists, Thomists, Reals, Nominals

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC

plural reals · plural reales

1. Former unit of currency of Spain and Spain's colonies.
2. A coin worth one real.

plural reis · plural réis · plural reals

1. A unit of currency used in Portugal and its colonies from 1430 until 1911, and in Brazil from 1790 until 1942.

   Synonyms: rei

2. countableA coin worth one real.

plural reais · plural reals

1. A unit of currency used in Brazil since 1994. Symbol: R$.

   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.

   2011, Perry Anderson, “Lula's Brazil”, in London Review of Books, 33.VII

2. countableA coin worth one real.

1. ball gamesReal Madrid, a football club from Madrid.
2. A surname.
3. A municipality of the province of Quezon, Philippines.