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reality
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
reality
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
divorced from reality
▪ His ideas are completely divorced from reality.
harsh realities
▪ a young girl suddenly exposed to the harsh realities of life
reality check
▪ It’s time for a reality check. The Bears aren’t as good a team as you think.
reality TV
virtual reality
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
economic
▪ Chavez, however, recognizes the pressures on him to make the leap from deconstructing the past to building new economic realities.
▪ In a wide-open auction, broadcasters would face a harsh economic reality.
▪ But the steps taken so far have been tentative ones, forced by bitter economic realities.
▪ Were they about to change, now that the new economic realities of health care had changed where decisions would be made?
▪ Human institutions and ideas are a superstructure built on economic reality.
▪ At the same time, economic and political realities had to be accommodated.
▪ But all of those societies had political and social ideologies that were congruent with their economic realities.
external
▪ The individual suspends his critical judgement and involvement in external reality to becoming passively absorbed in an imaginary world.
▪ Still, these external realities inform rather than dictate the novel.
▪ When it dropped her back inside the moment, the external realities of Kärtnerstrasse seemed a pastiche of the Middle Ages.
▪ In these projections the movement is not of external reality inward but of the self outward.
▪ These inner phantasies are projected into the external reality which is then re-incorporated as objective reality.
▪ A stronger sense of self, based on a combination of external reality and internal ideas, begins to emerge.
▪ There is no neutral, objective, external criterion for reality or rationality.
▪ Marx none the less believed that an external reality did exist, and that human consciousness could understand it.
grim
▪ And that we have an obligation to listen to noise because it shows us the grim truth of reality.
▪ Yet its simplicity dramatizes a grim reality.
▪ But these steps forward are against the background of some grim realities for children in other areas.
▪ Perhaps some of them are good at putting on a face, saving the grim reality for private moments.
▪ Life was teaching him its grim realities - the hard and close way.
▪ My brief visit certainly brought home to me the grim realities that lie behind the many statistics on Third World debt.
▪ It has all been a fantastic myth exploded by grim reality.
▪ However, the pain in her chest confirmed that this was no nightmare, but grim reality.
harsh
▪ Flight from reality, especially harsh, unpleasant reality.
▪ In a wide-open auction, broadcasters would face a harsh economic reality.
▪ Little Nemo was a little boy with a sweeping imagination, Tank Girl is a big girl steeped in harsh reality.
▪ One of the harsh realities about the electronic media is that it chews up its stars as fast as it creates them.
▪ Faces were stripped of pretence by the pitiless bombardment of harsh reality.
▪ Dennis Sherman learned that harsh reality over the winter when he came across two large groups of illegal immigrants atop Mount Laguna.
▪ The photographs of black cotton pickers, including young children, are reminders of the harsh reality underlying the glory.
▪ Acknowledging the sometimes harsh realities of our own history should not be cause for self-flagellation and blame.
new
▪ Chavez, however, recognizes the pressures on him to make the leap from deconstructing the past to building new economic realities.
▪ They have not adapted themselves to the new reality.
▪ Social and employment policy must reflect these new realities.
▪ They had just one minute to pull us into a new reality and a new play.
▪ Then, he felt the world shift on its axis, and knew that a new reality had slotted into its place.
▪ This 1995 work is his first to grapple with the social changes of the new political reality.
▪ What he longed for was an end to the day and to the new, unlivable reality it had brought.
▪ As with Alcatel Alsthom, the company faces new realities in a changing market, the company spokesman said.
physical
▪ The content it attaches to physical reality makes the natural world autonomous; its quest is to determine what is.
▪ The bull, then, becomes an example of the unity of male and female experience within physical reality.
▪ It seems that the nine-month gestation period has a psychological as well as a physical reality in human life.
▪ Electrons can not wholly disappear without having any effect on the rest of physical reality.
▪ Einstein and his collaborators had, therefore, to be very careful how they defined what they meant by physical reality.
▪ This is what classical physics has taught us about the nature of physical reality.
▪ It's the way our system of physical reality works.
▪ Mathematical equations lead us to physical realities.
political
▪ Yet here again political realities asserted themselves.
▪ It will take far more than this book to help you make your own judgments regarding political reality.
▪ Perceptions are simply a vision of political realities.
▪ This first budget also reflects practical and political realities.
▪ At the same time, economic and political realities had to be accommodated.
▪ And then the Colorado legislature threw the cold water of political reality on the process.
▪ Nevertheless, while in legal theory there may be complete flexibility, the political reality may be quite different.
▪ True / false. Political reality is as important as environmental reality.
social
▪ Exploitation and oppression will be concepts of history which have no place in the description of contemporary social reality.
▪ Instead it is argued that the unusual social profile of lawbreakers did reflect social reality.
▪ This is not to deny, of course, that crime and violence in contemporary society is an important social reality.
▪ Deviation is managed and progressively denied by continual renegotiation of the social reality against which it is set off.
▪ The position of women as subjects in sociology may give a distorted impression of social reality.
▪ But ideas which are determined by social reality are not, because they are so determined, necessarily erroneous.
▪ It is a matter of their input systems being tuned to the contours of this physical and this social reality.
stark
▪ It was how I'd always imagined showbiz would be - far removed from the stark reality of Working Men's Clubs.
▪ As a nation, we are right to finally confront the stark reality of needless suffering among the dying.
▪ Faced with the stark reality of a choice between jobs or no jobs, the majority had elected to work.
▪ But the stark reality of the Highland scene described reminds me of another idyllic circumstance that went the rounds about this time.
virtual
▪ When this happens, we will encounter a strange blurring of the edges between virtual and true realities.
▪ But these Escondido students have elevated the missions to near virtual reality status.
▪ At the moment virtual reality has a rather lightweight reputation, and has not really made its mark outside the entertainment industry.
▪ For some, the new Times Square is itself an exercise in virtual reality come to life.
▪ MultiGen, meantime, has been made more powerful through a number of virtual reality options.
▪ Peeshaw with your Nintendo and your virtual reality!
▪ For all the hype, this is really just a glorified amusement arcade with a few virtual-reality rides thrown in.
▪ Some managers come away from virtual reality demonstrations with unhealthy visions of holograms dancing in their heads.
■ NOUN
check
▪ I needed-what do they call that?-a reality check.
▪ Such feedback can be valuable as a reality check and provide you support when you actually implement your plan.
▪ Well, the first loss to Kentucky in 75 years and an imminent losing season is bringing forth a rude reality check.
▪ It is really important to get regular reality checks from those we love and trust.
▪ Mayor, why don't you drive around and get a reality check?
▪ Your accountant can do a reality check on your projections.
■ VERB
accept
▪ We have to accept that the reality is that we are always already on the slope, holding a position.
▪ That is, one who is a monotheist does not accept the ontological reality of idols.
▪ I've learnt so much from other families in the same situation and it's helped me to accept the realities.
▪ We accept this and accept the realities.
▪ It's easier to find excuses for poor customer service than accept reality and do something about it.
▪ The puff pieces are then accepted as reality by those who inspired them..
▪ He seemed to be much better equipped to accept political realities than I was.
▪ Citizens will accept this for reality.
become
▪ We want something written into the Bill that makes it likely that some of the consumer safeguards will become a reality.
▪ To become a reality, electronic commerce needs a network infrastructure to transport the content.
▪ But could this fantasy of genetic engineering ever become reality?
▪ Hope had betrayed her into thinking dreams could become reality.
▪ Neither will likely become a reality this year, for political and substantive reasons.
▪ We shall have to see if one of the more interesting measures in the Budget ever becomes reality.
▪ Some of these visions, like Zionism and socialism, may occasionally become reality.
bring
▪ He was brought in touch with reality, he was thawed out.
▪ Meanwhile, the planners said the next five years are crucial in bringing their vision to reality.
▪ Sometimes it was necessary to shout at him to bring him back to reality.
▪ Guttenberg and Quinlan are attractive, capable players able to bring some degree of reality to their single parents.
▪ Inside the studio we were brought back sharply to reality by a studio audience, all of whom shared two characteristics.
▪ Which brings us back to reality and mythology.
▪ This m lange makes for a diverse mixture, brought together by the reality of the distribution of Knesset seats.
create
▪ Rather than inventing a unique fictional world, it creates a recognisable reality that calls for accuracy.
▪ Sure, I admit that I no longer can create my own reality.
▪ If we create our own reality, we create our own future.
▪ When I finally accepted that I create my own reality, I was excited but scared.
▪ Hang on a minute ... If we create our own reality, then how can we ever be justified in feeling angry?
▪ Then I reminded myself that I create my own reality!
▪ Are you willing to take responsibility for your life, to accept that we create our own reality?
▪ After all, we create our own reality.
escape
▪ A dream citadel where Billy escapes from his day-mare realities.
face
▪ For Rosenberg, faced with the realities of the world, the canvas would become the site of an existential encounter.
▪ I always face reality too late: a fact which Lisa had pointed out to me before I left London.
▪ It is a lack, a disqualification, an inability to face the reality of their child's disability.
▪ In a wide-open auction, broadcasters would face a harsh economic reality.
▪ It is certainly not enough to face reality bluntly if the future develops as I describe it.
▪ If individuals are forced to face the reality of starvation, everyone will buckle down to work.
▪ I share this hesitation; but I also feel compelled to face reality.
reflect
▪ Social and employment policy must reflect these new realities.
▪ Attitudes and speech patterns remain in place long after they no longer reflect reality.
▪ The content of core programmes will continue to evolve to reflect the changing reality of the business environment.
▪ The appearance is one of thoroughness, but whether the assumptions reflect reality can usually be questioned.
▪ Although this picture no longer accurately reflects the reality of many modern corporate structures, legal rules still rest upon the old idea.
▪ Other viewpoints reflected a different reality.
▪ Nevertheless, the second surely comes closer to reflecting the realities and passions of the 1930s.
▪ But how well does the show reflect the reality of policing suburbia?
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Delane turned to drugs as an escape from reality.
▪ Small children often can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As a result, a heavy dose of reality has descended on the Buchanan campaign.
▪ As it turned out, they had all the problems one would reasonably expect, given their experiential reality.
▪ But I have suggested that these three viewpoints express different ways of knowing and relating to one complex multi-layered reality.
▪ But it refers to a religious reality that is so basic and so universal its equivalent has been found almost everywhere.
▪ But the reality of biology is much more complicated.
▪ Now, as the barriers come down between East and West, that prospect will become a reality.
▪ There are realities that I can not change.
Related phrases:
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Reality

Reality \Re*al"i*ty\ (r[-e]*[a^]l"[i^]*t[y^]), n.; pl. Realities (-t[i^]z). [Cf. F. r['e]alit['e], LL. realitas. See 3d Real, and cf. 2d Realty.]

  1. The state or quality of being real; actual being or existence of anything, in distinction from mere appearance; fact.

    A man fancies that he understands a critic, when in reality he does not comprehend his meaning.
    --Addison.

  2. That which is real; an actual existence; that which is not imagination, fiction, or pretense; that which has objective existence, and is not merely an idea.

    And to realities yield all her shows.
    --Milton.

    My neck may be an idea to you, but it is a reality to me.
    --Beattie.

  3. [See 1st Realty, 2.] Loyalty; devotion. [Obs.]

    To express our reality to the emperor.
    --Fuller.

  4. (Law) See 2d Realty, 2.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
reality

1540s, "quality of being real," from French réalité and directly Medieval Latin realitatem (nominative realitas), from Late Latin realis (see real (adj.)). Meaning "real existence, all that is real" is from 1640s; that of "the real state (of something)" is from 1680s. Sometimes 17c.-18c. also meaning "sincerity." Reality-based attested from 1960. Reality television from 1991.

Wiktionary
reality

n. The state of being actual or real.

Related phrases:
WordNet
reality

  1. n. all of your experiences that determine how things appear to you; "his world was shattered"; "we live in different worlds"; "for them demons were as much a part of reality as trees were" [syn: world]

  2. the state of being actual or real; "the reality of his situation slowly dawned on him" [syn: realness, realism] [ant: unreality]

  3. the state of the world as it really is rather than as you might want it to be; "businessmen have to face harsh realities"

  4. the quality possessed by something that is real [ant: unreality]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Reality

Reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible. A still broader definition includes everything that has existed, exists, or will exist.

Philosophers, mathematicians, and other ancient and modern thinkers, such as Aristotle, Plato, Frege, Wittgenstein, and Russell, have made a distinction between thought corresponding to reality, coherent abstractions (thoughts of things that are imaginable but not real), and that which cannot even be rationally thought. By contrast existence is often restricted solely to that which has physical existence or has a direct basis in it in the way that thoughts do in the brain.

Reality is often contrasted with what is imaginary, delusional, (only) in the mind, dreams, what is false, what is fictional, or what is abstract. At the same time, what is abstract plays a role both in everyday life and in academic research. For instance, causality, virtue, life, and distributive justice are abstract concepts that can be difficult to define, but they are only rarely equated with pure delusions. Both the existence and reality of abstractions are in dispute: one extreme position regards them as mere words; another position regards them as higher truths than less abstract concepts. This disagreement is the basis of the philosophical problem of universals.

The truth refers to what is real, while falsity refers to what is not. Fictions are considered not real.

Reality (David Bowie album)

Reality is the twenty-third studio album by English rock musician David Bowie. It was released in 2003 on his Iso Records label, in conjunction with Columbia Records.

Reality (Dream album)

Reality is the second studio album by American pop group Dream. It was released in limited quantities in France in late 2005 over two years after the group had disbanded; it remained unreleased elsewhere until 2008, when it became available on the United States iTunes Store.

Reality (disambiguation)

Reality refers to the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to how they could possibly exist.

Reality may also refer to:

Reality (Monk Montgomery album)

Reality is a 1974 album by jazz bassist Monk Montgomery, one of his four solo albums. It was released on Philadelphia International Records.

Reality (Kenny Chesney song)

"Reality" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Kenny Chesney for his 2010 album Hemingway's Whiskey, from which it was released in October 2011 as the fifth single. The song became his twenty-first number one single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in early 2012.

Reality (Dream song)

"Reality" is the fourth single by Japanese group Dream. A VHS single was released September 20, 2000. The title track was used in Dream's commercial campaign for "Sea Breeze" toiletries. First pressings included one of three sticker sheets. The single reached number 17 on the weekly Oricon charts and charted for five weeks.

Reality (2012 film)

Reality is a 2012 Italian drama film directed by Matteo Garrone and stars Aniello Arena, Loredana Simioli, and Claudia Gerini. The narrative is set in the world of reality television, and follows a Neapolitan fishmonger who participates in Grande Fratello, the Italian version of Big Brother. The film won the Grand Prix award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

Reality (Smooth album)

Reality is the fourth album by Smooth. It was released on March 10, 1998 through Perspective Records and featured production from Chris Stokes and the production duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. This is her first album under Perspective Records after two albums recorded under Jive Records. It is also her first album where she sings on the entire project. Unlike her previous material, Reality contains a more diverse sound with elements of pop and alternative rock mixed into an R&B sound.

Reality peaked at #48 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and #32 on the Top Heatseekers.

The album featured Smooth's biggest hit, " Strawberries", which peaked at #49 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #17 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks.

Reality (Richard Sanderson song)

"Reality" is a song performed by English singer Richard Sanderson. It was released in 1980 as part of the soundtrack to the popular 1980 French film La Boum, which starred French actress Sophie Marceau (who later starred in popular films such as Academy Award- winning Braveheart and James Bond franchise The World Is Not Enough). It was also served as the theme song to the 2011 Korean film Sunny.

Musically, "Reality" is a ballad, sometimes called an adult-contemporary song, and consists of synthesizers and guitar riffs which cause it to be classified under the soft-rock genre. It was composed by Vladimir Cosma, written by Jeff Jordan and produced by Pierre Richard Muller. Between 1980 and 1982, then in 1987 after its re-release, it became a major hit in Europe and Asia, topping the charts in fifteen countries including Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Finland and Switzerland and selling more than eight million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. The song led Richard Sanderson to stardom, giving him more hits with Cosma such as "Your Eyes", "She's a Lady", and "Sun".

"Reality" was a very popular song in the 1980s, also becoming a popular slow dance hymn. Since its release, the song has been covered many times by various artists, including one singing a Spanish version of the song ("Mi realidad"). On DSDS, the German equivalent of American Idol, the song has been sung multiple times. In the film La Boum, it also appears frequently (usually during the actors' romantic scenes), being the film's main theme song. For the film's 1982 sequel, La Boum 2, the main song was changed to "Your Eyes", performed by Cook da Books. Because "Reality" has the same key as "Go On Forever" (another song played in the last part of the film, from the La Boum soundtrack and sung by Sanderson and Chantal Curtis), both songs are musically linked at the end of the film.

The La Boum soundtrack album, which features the song "Reality", was made available on iTunes in 2009 by Larghetto.

Reality (James Brown song)

"Reality" is a song recorded by James Brown. Released as a single in 1975, it charted #19 R&B and #80 Pop. It also appeared on an album of the same name.

Reality (Second Hand album)

Reality is the debut studio album by British progressive rock band Second Hand, released in 1968. The album is sometimes considered to be one of the first progressive rock recordings, though the album The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack was released in late 1967. Most of the album material was actually written and recorded in early 1967, and the album can be said to be a few years ahead of its time and shows progressive touches much earlier than the classic artists of the genre such as Yes, Genesis and King Crimson.

Reality (Tackhead song)

"Reality" is a single by the industrial hip-hop group Tackhead, released in January 1988 on On-U Sound Records.

Reality (2014 film)

Reality is a 2014 French-Belgian comedy-drama film written and directed by Quentin Dupieux. The film premiered in the Horizons section at the 71st Venice International Film Festival on 28 August 2014.

Reality (James Brown album)

'Reality ' is the 42nd studio album by American musician James Brown. The album was released on December 19, 1974, by Polydor Records.

Reality (Lost Frequencies song)

"Reality" is a song written by Felix de Laet, Janieck van de Polder, and Radboud Miedema. The song topped the charts in over ten countries.

Reality (Infinite EP)

Reality is the fifth mini-album released by the South Korean boy band, Infinite. It was released on July 13, 2015 by Woollim Entertainment. The album features seven tracks with "Bad" serving as its title track.

Reality (EP)

Reality is an EP by American indie rock band Real Estate, released on December 18, 2009 on Mexican Summer.

All the songs were recorded on a cassette 8-track in Jersey City, New Jersey except "Saturday Morning", which was recorded in Ridgewood, New Jersey.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "reality".

The public image of Enron and the reality of its operations were diverging more each day-and not just because of accounting gimmicks.

In reality, however, the accuser is attacking the witch, and in an extremely dangerous manner, too.

It being taught in the Mysteries, either by way of allegory, the meaning of which was not made known except to a select few, or, perhaps only at a later day, as an actual reality, that the souls of the vicious dead passed into the bodies of those animals to whose nature their vices had most affinity, it was also taught that the soul could avoid these transmigrations, often successive and numerous, by the practice of virtue, which would acquit it of them, free it from the circle of successive generations, and restore it at once to its source.

A white amaurosis, apart from being etymologically a contradiction, would also be a neurological impossibility, since the brain, which would be unable to perceive the images, forms and colours of reality, would likewise be incapable, in a manner of speaking, of being covered in white, a continuous white, like a white painting without tonalities, the colours, forms and images that reality itself might present to someone with normal vision, however difficult it may be to speak, with any accuracy, of normal vision.

Intellectual-Principle, treating them as impressions of reality upon it: we cannot strip it of truth and so make its objects unknowable and non-existent and in the end annul the Intellectual-Principle itself.

Reason recognising it as such a nature, you may not hope to see it with mortal eyes, nor in any way that would be imagined by those who make sense the test of reality and so annul the supremely real.

When he arrived, because of the strongly anthropic nature of reality, our perceptions caused his particulate structure to begin decaying, changing toward something approximating our own, and he grew more and more human.

The bubble of reality he generated was being eroded by the strongly anthropic process.

And a world made unsafe for mysticism and theocentric religion is a world where the only proved method of transforming personality will be less and less practiced, and where fewer and fewer people will possess any direct, experimental knowledge of reality to set up against the false doctrine of totalitarian anthropocentrism and the pernicious ideas and practices of nationalistic pseudo-mysticism.

For Ippolit is revolting not against the iniquities of a social order but, anticipating Kirillov and Ivan Karamazov, against a world in which death, and hence immitigable human suffering, is an inescapable reality.

On the face of it, it is impossible to hold that ideas are the only objects that we do directly apprehend and yet are also representations of realities that are never objects that we directly apprehend, for one can be said to represent the other only if both can be directly apprehended and compared.

Quality: reason has, so to speak, appropriated a portion of Reality, that portion manifest to it on the surface.

As he passed the silent sanctas, he wondered what the official line would be on the reality of Grijalva artlet alone his uses of it.

Quality and Quantity, though attributive, are real entities, and on the basis of this reality distinguishable as Quality and Quantity respectively: then, on the same principle, since Motion, though an attribute has a reality prior to its attribution, it is incumbent upon us to discover the intrinsic nature of this reality.

If we are agreed that Quality and Quantity, though attributive, are real entities, and on the basis of this reality distinguishable as Quality and Quantity respectively: then, on the same principle, since Motion, though an attribute has a reality prior to its attribution, it is incumbent upon us to discover the intrinsic nature of this reality.