irreal

English

Etymology

From Latin irrealis, from in- (“un-: not”) + reālis (“real, material, tangible, composed of physical things”), from res (“thing”) + -ālis (“-al: forming adjectives”). Doublet of irrealis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈɹiːəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

irreal (comparative more irreal, superlative most irreal)

1. (philosophy) Synonym of intangible, immaterial, not composed of things, having no concrete existence.

   Coordinate terms: unreal; paranormal

   Near-synonyms: preternatural, supernatural, ethereal, celestial

   • 2012, T. Dant, Television and the Moral Imaginary: Society through the Small Screen, →ISBN:

     'Irreal' objects draw on our previous sensual experience but have never existed; they are created through the spontaneous intentional operations of the imagination.

   • 2013, J. Mensch, The Question of Being in Husserl’s Logical Investigations, →ISBN, page 8:

     It is a shift to the ego conceived as irreal, as non-worldly.

   • 2014, J. Pike, P. Kelly, The Moral Geographies of Children, Young People and Food, →ISBN:

     The irreal spatiality of school dining rooms, including such things as décor, furnishings, modes of ordering, manner of queuing, ambience, 'feel', can also, as we have seen, actively limit these governmental ambitions.

   • 2015, Sarah Pink, Doing Sensory Ethnography, →ISBN:

     It is impossible to directly access the imaginations of others, to know precisely if and how an imagined 'irreal' future is felt by an individual or shared by a 'collective', or to know if one has shared it oneself.

Derived terms

• irrealism

Related terms

• irreality
• unreality

Anagrams

• railer, rerail

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin irreālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [i.re̞ˈal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Central, Valencia, Northwestern) [i.reˈal]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Adjective

irreal m or f (masculine and feminine plural irreals)

1. unreal

Derived terms

• irrealitat

Further reading

• “irreal” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /i.ʁeˈaw/ [i.heˈaʊ̯]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /i.ʁeˈaw/ [i.heˈaʊ̯]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /i.ʁeˈaw/ [i.χeˈaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /i.ʁɨˈal/ [i.ʁɨˈaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /i.ʁɨˈal/ [i.ʁɨˈaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /i.ʁɨˈa.li/

• Rhymes: -al, -aw
• Hyphenation: ir‧re‧al

Adjective

irreal m or f (plural irreais)

1. unreal (not real)

   Antonym: real

Derived terms

• irrealmente

Further reading

• “irreal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Etymology

From ir- + real.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ireˈal/ [i.reˈal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: i‧rre‧al

Adjective

irreal m or f (masculine and feminine plural irreales)

1. unreal

   Antonym: real

2. fantastic

   Synonym: fantástico

Derived terms

• irrealmente

Further reading

• “irreal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025