real-life

comparative more real-life · superlative most real-life · alternative reallife

1. As happens in real life; not fictional or theoretical; actual as opposed to believed or assumed.

   He was a real-life detective before playing one in the movies.

   3 more examples

   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

   In addition, as far as we were aware, there were no published data that quantified real-life speech practices in Singapore beyond census reportage, but we had no reason to conclude a priori that the distribution of languages spoken at NIE would match census data.

   2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 7

   “How to hide, survive and use the urban environment as a sanctuary was a challenge but the soldiers adapted to the real-life challenges,” ETG Commander Col. Toby Till explained.

   2023 October 26, Rojoef Manuel, “British Army Trials Situational Awareness Technologies in Urban Warfare Training”, in The Defense Post, archived from the original on 17 Jul 2024

2. Not online, in real life.