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Definition: Reality |
RealityNoun1. 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". 2. The state of being actual or real: "the reality of his situation slowly dawned on him". 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. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "reality" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
Etymology: Reality \Re*al"i*ty\, noun; plural Realities. [Compare to French r['e]alit['e], Late Latin realitas. See 3d Real. and compare to 2d Realty.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | REALITY, n. The dream of a mad philosopher. That which would remain in the cupel if one should assay a phantom. The nucleus of a vacuum. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The term reality refers to everything that actually exists. Reality, in its widest sense, includes everything that there is, whether or not it is observable, accessible or understandable by science, philosophy or any other system of analysis. Reality in this sense may include both being and nothingness, whereas "existence" is often restricted to being.
Reality may also be defined in a more restricted way: Reality is that portion of ultimate reality which is accessible to scientific and philosophical observation, investigation and theoretical interpretation. Some portion of ultimate reality may lie beyond our scope to examine or even imagine.
What people consider science and philosophy is often defined culturally and socially. See socially constructed reality for more discussion on this point.
What reality is not
"Reality," the concept, is contrasted with a wide variety of other concepts, largely depending upon the intellectual discipline. It can help to understand what we mean by "reality" to note what we say is not real.
In philosophy, reality is contrasted with nonexistence (e.g., unicorns do not exist; so they are not real) and mere possibility (a mountain made of gold is merely possible, but is not real). Sometimes philosophers speak as though reality is contrasted with existence itself, though ordinary language and many other philosophers would treat these as synonyms. They have in mind the notion that there is a kind of reality--a mental or intensional reality, perhaps--that imaginary objects, such as the aforementioned golden mountain, have. Alexius Meinong is famous, or infamous, for holding that such things have so-called subsistence, and thus a kind of reality, even while they do not actually exist. Most philosophers find the very notion of "subsistence" mysterious and unnecessary, and one of the shibboleths and starting points of 20th century analytic philosophy has been the forceful rejection of the notion of subsistence--of "real" but nonexistent objects.
It is worth saying at this point that many philosophers are not content with saying merely what reality is not--some of them have positive theories of what broad categories of objects are real, in addition. See ontology as well as realism (philosophy); these topics are also briefly treated below.
In ethics, political theory, and the arts, reality is often contrasted with what is ideal.
In ethics, discussions of ethical perfectionism, what might be called "moral idealism" or the notion that we are obligated to be morally perfect human beings, runs up against notions of what is real about human nature and the human condition.
In political theory there is an old and distinguished tradition of inventing utopias and utopianism--those of Plato and Thomas More are the most famous--but these are often accused of ignoring the so-called facts of reality concerning human nature. Political liberalism, by contrast with conservatism, is usually thought of as being of the contrary view--that human nature is inherently changeable, and that there are no "facts of reality" concerning human nature, a view advocated in the twentieth century by the existentialists. And, consequently, utopianism is more often a feature of liberalism rather than conservatism.
In the arts there was a broad movement beginning in the 19th century, realism (which led to naturalism), which sought to portray characters, scenes, and so forth, realistically. This was in contrast and reaction to romanticism, which portrayed their subjects idealistically. Commentary about these artistic movements is sometimes put in terms of the contrast between the real and the ideal: on the one hand, the average, ordinary, and natural, and on the other, the superlative, extraordinary, improbable, and sometimes even supernatural. Obviously, when speaking in this sense, "real" (or "realistic") does not have the same meaning as it does when, for example, a philosopher uses the term to distinguish, simply, what exists from what does not exist.
In the arts, and also in ordinary life, the notion of reality (or realism) is also often contrasted with illusion. A painting that precisely indicates the visually-appearing shape of a depicted object is said to be realistic in that respect; one that distorts features, as Pablo Picasso's paintings are famous for doing, are said not to be unrealistic, and thus some observers will say, but with questionable grammatical correctness, that they are "not real." But there are also tendencies in the visual arts toward so-called realism and more recently photorealism that invite a different sort of contrast with the real. Trompe l'oeil (French, "fool the eye") paintings render their subjects so "realistically" that the casual observer might temporarily be deceived into thinking that he is seeing something, indeed, real--but in fact, it is merely an illusion, and an intentional one at that.
In psychiatry, reality, or rather, of being in touch with reality is integral to the notion of schizophrenia, since it has often been defined in part by reference to being "out of touch" with reality. The schizophrenic is said to have hallucinations and delusions which concern people and events that are not real. However there is controversy over what is considered out of touch with reality, particularly due to the noticeable comparison of the process of forcefully instituting individuals for expressing their beliefs in society to reality enforcement. The practices possible covert use as a political tool can perhaps be illustrated by the 18th Century psychiatric sentences in the U.S of black slaves for 'crazily' attempting to escape. See also anti-psychiatry and one its prominent figures, the ex-psychiatrist Thomas Szasz.
In each of these cases, discussions of reality, or what counts as "real," take on quite different casts; indeed, what we say about reality often depends on what we want to say it is not.
Reality, world views, and theories of reality
A common colloquial usage would have "reality" mean "perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes toward reality," as in "My reality is not your reality." This is often used just as a colloquialism indicating that the parties to a conversation agree, or should agree, not to quibble over deeply different conceptions of what is real. For example, in a religious discussion between friends, one might say (attempting humor), "You might disagree, but in my reality, everyone goes to heaven."
But occasionally--and particularly in the case of those who have been exposed to certain ideas from philosophy, sociology, literary criticism, and other fields--it is often thought that there simply and literally is no reality beyond the perceptions or beliefs we each have about reality. Such attitudes indicate anti-realism, that is, the view that there is no objective reality, whether acknowledged explicitly or not. These topics will be discussed in greater detail below.
If we really do literally mean by "reality" simply "beliefs about reality," then our article about reality would necessarily, to be complete, have to outline every world view (this is how the German word Weltanschauung is usually translated)--every broadly different way of "seeing" reality. In this sense, the topic of reality encompasses many other topics: perception, psychology generally, cognitive psychology and cognitive science, religion, sociology and anthropology, and topics in philosophy. For a broad overview on reality in that sense, the reader is enjoined to peruse Wikipedia or any general reference work. General encyclopedias are, after all, supposed to be descriptions of everything--or perceptions of everything, if the reader prefers.
But there is a way to make the topic of reality less cumbersome for present purposes: restrict the discussion to theories about the general topic of reality itself. Thus, for example, a certain Christian world view would not count as a theory of reality, but the theory that the Christian world view is a "construction" of reality would count as a theory about reality. It is theories about reality, in this sense, that philosophers discuss as part of metaphysics; such theories are also sometimes discussed in literary theory (which is, today, heavily influenced by Continental philosophy and heavily anti-realist) as well as in sociology and cultural anthropology.
Philosophical views of reality
Philosophy addresses two different aspects of the topic of reality: the nature of reality itself, and the relationship between the mind (as well as language and culture) and reality.
On the one hand, ontology is the study of being, and the central topic of the field is couched, variously, in terms of being, existence, "what is," and reality. The task in ontology is to describe the most general categories of reality and how they are interrelated. If--what is rarely done--a philosopher wanted to proffer a positive definition of the concept "reality," it would be done under this heading. As explained above, some philosophers draw a distinction between reality and existence. In fact, many analytic philosophers today tend to avoid the term "real" and "reality" in discussing ontological issues. But for those who would treat "is real" the same way they treat "exists," one of the leading questions of analytic philosophy has been whether existence (or reality) is a property of objects. It has been widely held by analytic philosophers that it is not a property at all, though this view has lost some ground in recent decades.
On the other hand, particularly in discussions of objectivity that have feet in both metaphysics and epistemology, philosophical discussions of "reality" often concern the ways in which reality is, or is not, in some way dependent upon (or, to use fashionable jargon, "constructed" out of) mental and cultural factors such as perceptions, beliefs, and other mental states, as well as cultural artifacts, such as religions and political movements, on up to the vague notion of a common cultural world view or Weltanschauung.
The view that there is a reality independent of any beliefs, perceptions, etc., is called realism. More specifically, philosophers are given to speaking about "realism about" this and that, such as realism about universals or realism about the external world. Generally, where one can identify any class of object the existence or essential characteristics of which is said to depend on perceptions, beliefs, language, or any other human artifact, one can speak of "realism about" that object.
One can also speak of anti-realism about the same objects. "Anti-realism" is the latest in a long series of terms for views opposed to realism. Perhaps the first was idealism , so called because reality was said to be in the mind, or "ideal" in that special sense. Berkeleyan idealism is the view, propounded by the Irish empiricist George Berkeley, that the objects of perception are actually ideas in the mind. On this view, one might be tempted to say that reality is a "mental construct"; this is not quite accurate, however, since on Berkeley's view perceptual ideas are created and coordinated by God. By the twentieth century, views similar to Berkeley's were called phenomenalism. Phenomenalism differs from Berkeleyan idealism primarily in that Berkeley believed that minds, or souls, are not merely ideas nor made up of ideas, whereas varieties of phenomenalism, such as that advocated by Russell, tended to go farther to say that the mind itself is merely a collection of perceptions, memories, etc., and that there is no mind or soul over and above such mental events. Finally, anti-realism became a fashionable term for any view which held that the existence of some object depends upon the mind or cultural artifacts. The view that the so-called external world is really merely a social, or cultural, artifact, called social constructionism, is one variety of anti-realism. Cultural relativism is the view that social issues such as morality are not absolute, but at least partially cultural artifact.
Reality is also the name of a (usually) single-panel web comic by John-Paul Vitale.
See also: Ontology, Simulated reality, hyperreality, virtual reality
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Reality."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Reality television is a genre of television programming in which the fortunes of "real life" people (as opposed to actors, or fictional characters) are followed.
There are three main types of reality television program. In the first, the viewer and the camera are passive observers following people going about their daily personal and professional activities. The "plots" which are compiled for the program often resemble soap operas, hence the description docusoap.
The first reality show broadcast was the PBS series An American Family, broadcast in the United States in 1973 in twelve parts. The series dealt with a nuclear family going through a divorce; the parents had several children and one of them, Lance Loud, was an openly homosexual young man who occasionally wore lipstick and women's clothes and took his mother to a drag show in episode two of the series. Scholars sometimes mention that Lance came out of the closet on TV, but this is technically incorrect--he was simply homosexual without announcement. His family confirms that he had been out for some time. The show was controversial in its time and was excoriated by the press, particularly The New York Times, which published a piece criticizing the series and especially Lance Loud.
In 1974 a counterpart programme, The Family, was made in the UK , following the working class Wilkins family of Reading. Later Australia saw Sylvania Waters in 1992, about the nouveau riche Baker-Donaher family of Sydney. Both attracted their share of controversy.
A prime modern example of reality television is MTV's The Real World, one of the first reality programs to gain popularity. A new subset of this type has recently emerged in which the daily lives of celebrities are portrayed. Examples include The Anna Nicole Show and The Osbournes.
In the second type, hidden cameras are rolling when random passers-by encounter a staged situation. The reactions of the passers-by can be funny to watch, but also revealing to the truths about the human condition. Allen Funt, an American pioneer in reality entertainment, led the way in the development of this type of show. He created Candid Microphone, which debuted on the ABC Radio Network in 1947, and the internationally successful Candid Camera, which first aired on television in 1953. He later produced a feature-length reality-film in 1968 entitled What Do You Say to a Naked Lady. The film was a hidden-camera study of sexuality and mores of the time. For example, in one staged situation, passers-by encountered an inter-racial couple.
In the third type, the so-called "reality game shows", participants are filmed intensively in an enclosed environment while competing to win a prize - thus they are game shows and discussed more thoroughly in that article. The reality game show genre has become pervasive enough to be parodied by Spike TV with The Joe Schmo Show.
One difference that makes these more like "reality television" than other game shows is that the viewing public usually (but not always) plays an active role in deciding the outcome. Usually this is by eliminating participants (disapproval voting) or voting for the most popular choice to win (with some other voting system). Two of the most popular reality-based game shows of this sort are Big Brother and Survivor. There is also a Spanish language show taped for Latin American audiences, Protagonistas De La Musica, filmed in Miami by Telemundo USA.
However, given that producers can control the format of the show, as well as manipulate the outcome of some of them, it is questionable how "real" reality television actually is.
Other reality programs include Driving School, Cops, Highway Patrol, Road Rules, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Married by America, Average Joe, the British series World's Worst and Pop Stars, and the spinoffs of the latter, Pop Idol, American Idol and American Juniors.
External links
- Lord of the fly-on-the-walls - Observer article: Paul Watson's UK & Australian docusoaps
- Reality is the best business model for TV - shumans.com article
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Reality television."
Synonyms: RealitySynonyms: realism (n), realness (n), world (n). (additional references) |
| Antonym: unreality (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Existence | Reality, actuality; positiveness; Adjective: fact, matter of fact, sober reality; truth; actual existence. |
Center of life, essence, inmost nature, inner reality, vital principle. | |
Adverb: actually; Adjective: in fact, in point of fact, in reality; indeed; de facto, ipso facto. | |
Truth | Noun: fact, reality; (existence); plain fact, plain matter of fact; nature; (principle); truth, verity; gospel, gospel truth, God's honest truth; orthodoxy; a; authenticity; veracity; correctness,Noun: fact, reality; (existence); plain fact, plain matter of fact; nature; (principle); truth, verity; gospel, gospel truth, God's honest truth; orthodoxy; a; authenticity; veracity; correctness, correctitude. |
Adverb: truly; Adjective: verily, indeed, really, in reality; with truth; (veracity); certainly; (certain); actually; (existence); in effect; (intrinsically). | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Reality |
| English words defined with "reality": in reality. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "reality": Affective Disorders, Psychotic, alveolar dust, alveolar subfraktion, Ammonian Horn, artificial reality ♦ bamf, Begging the Question ♦ cancelbot, Cartesian, Come Over One, computer ethics, CyberGlove, CyberWand ♦ data glove, derealization, dictionary flame ♦ earth current ♦ games, Greek Gift ♦ Human-Computer Interface ♦ Ivan Sutherland ♦ jack in ♦ kremvax, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan ♦ LAW, Letter of Uriah ♦ Manuscript, meatspace, mine head, Misnomers ♦ Pagan Works of Art, Painters and Artists, Pentapolin, portion of a piece, Puss in Boots ♦ respirable dust, respirable subfraction ♦ selective absorption, smoke test, social reality, surimpression ♦ teledildonics, tele-immersion ♦ Virtual Reality Modeling Language, VR, VRML. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "reality": Soothness. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | The President has critically misjudged reality. If he honestly thinks that the environmental community is going to whistle a happy tune while rallying support around this pitifully lame mockery of environmental leadership just because he's a nice guy and he's done better than his predecessors, then your boss is the Chief Executive of Fantasyland (The American President; writing credit: Aaron Sorkin.) I think you need a reminder of how painful reality can be. (End of Days; writing credit: Andrew W. Marlowe) This reality, whatever you want to call it, I can't stand it any longer (The Matrix; writing credit: Andy Wachowski; Larry Wachowski) Only as sure as I am that the reality of one night, let alone that of a whole lifetime, can ever be the whole truth (Eyes Wide Shut; writing credit: Arthur Schnitzler; Stanley Kubrick) First there was the dream, now there is reality. Here in the untainted cradle of the heavens will be created a new super race, a race of perfect physical specimens (Moonraker; writing credit: Christopher Wood) | |
Lyrics | Livin a land of Virtual Reality, (Virtual Reality; performing artist: Rusted Root) Somehow became reality (Thank God I Found You; performing artist: 98 Degrees) Oh, heaven on earth is all you see, you're out of touch with reality (Everybody Plays the Fool; performing artist: Aaron Neville) You made my dream a reality (Can't Stop; performing artist: After 7) How your love's affecting our reality (Larger Than Life; performing artist: Backstreet Boys) | |
Clever | You know it's love when you can't fall asleep because reality is better than dreams. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Reality (1969) 'Bullitt': Steve McQueen's Commitment to Reality (1968) Road to Reality (1960) Facing Reality (1954) Film and Reality (1942) | |
Song Titles | Virtual Reality (performing artist: Rusted Root) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Aurora Australis -shaft of red light appears laser-like but in reality comes from interaction between auroral display and normal light bulb. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |  | ... onchocerciasis is a reality that leaves an unhappy legacy of damaged or destroyed eyesight. / WHO p. Credit: National Library of Medicine; photo by R.C. da Silva.. |
 | Coaling from a schooner, 1898. Though deteriorated, this photo shows an activity that was a frequent, and very dirty, reality of Spanish-American War naval operations. Credit: NAVY. |  | Now a world of stark reality!. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Russia in mirage, Russia in reality. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "_MOVEMENT:57" by Janus R. Sørensen Commentary: "Reality is constantly changing. Culture is always evolving. Information is always moving. Constant motion, even in that which seems static. _MOVEMENT:57." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Author | Quotation |
Arthur Schopenhauer | The present is the only reality and the only certainty. |
Christian Nevell Bovee | A pleasant illusion is better than a harsh reality. |
Georg Hegel | Truth in philosophy means that concept and external reality correspond. |
Johann Friedrich Von Schiller | Measure not by the scale of perfection the meager product of reality. |
Lily Tomlin | Reality is a crutch for people who can't cope with drugs. |
| Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it. | |
Soren Kierkegaard | Repetition is the reality and the seriousness of life. |
Thomas Carlyle | Reality, if rightly interpreted, is grander than fiction. |
Walt Whitman | I accept reality and dare not question it. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Marbury v. Madison | 1803 | It would declare that if the legislature shall do what is expressly forbidden, such act, notwithstanding the express prohibition, is in reality effectual. (reference) |
Communist Manifesto | 1848 | Bourgeois marriage is in reality a system of wives in common and thus, at the most, what the Communists might possibly be reproached with, is that they desire to introduce, in substitution for a hypocritically concealed, an openly legalised community of women. (reference) |
Winston S. Churchill | 1946 | We must make sure that its work is fruitful, that it is a reality and not a sham, that it is a force for action, and not merely a frothing of words, that it is a true temple of peace in which the shields of many nations can some day be hung up, and not merely a cockpit in a Tower of Babel. ("Iron Curtain" Speech) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | Henceforth, it ceases to be a reality of my life, I am a citizen of somewhere else |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | He had fallen back into reality. |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | By his monstrous way of life he seemed to have put himself beyond the limits of reality. |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | They are the highest reality. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Hallucinogens are drugs that cause hallucinations - profound distortions in a person's perceptions of reality. (references) | |
These parts of the brain are important in the ability to compare internal ideas with previous experience and external reality. (references) | ||
Initial explanations of the disease and treatment may be lost as parents try to come to grips with the reality that their child has cancer. (references) | ||
Business | The new reality is that almost any organization can gain access to these resources. (references) | |
All of these problems must be solved in order for the dream of a Chinese family car to become a reality. (references) | ||
With this functionality in place, the ability to conduct secure transactions over the phone and electronically “sign” for goods, becomes a reality. (references) | ||
Children | China | However, reality for persons with disabilities lags far behind legal dictates, and many do not receive or have access to special assistance or to programs designed to assist them. (references) |
Civil Liberties | Poland | The TVP and its two channels remained the most widely viewed television in the country (with joint market shares of over 50 percent), but it has faced strong competition from the two private networks, TVN and Polsat, which draw viewers to their popular reality shows. (references) |
Egypt | On June 18, the Court of Appeals rejected an Islamist lawyer's suit against the Sheikh of al-Azhar and several other senior Islamic figures in their effort to block publication of the book "My Father Adam: The Story of the Creation Between Legend and Reality," by Abdel Sabour Shahine. (references) | |
Economic History | Guatemala | Regionalization is fast becoming a reality. (references) |
Norway | Mobile Commerce is already becoming a reality. (references) | |
Nepal | But in reality, such investment proposals go to the IPB. (references) | |
Human Rights | Lebanon | The Government endorsed the commission report and then Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss called on all families to "accept reality despite its bitterness." However, in December 2000, following the release by the Syrian authorities of an estimated 149 Lebanese detainees from Syrian jails, including some who had been declared dead by the commission, the Government formed a new committee to reexamine the cases of those who had disappeared during the civil strife. (references) |
Political Economy | Pakistan | The constitution guarantees the independence of the judiciary but in reality it has never been completely independent. (references) |
Cyprus | In view of this reality, the Government of Cyprus has been working to eliminate as many other potential sticking points as possible. (references) | |
Trade | Indonesia | There remains a large gap between the letter of a particular regulation and the reality. (references) |
Vietnam | In principle, state-owned banks could provide export financing to US firms operating in Vietnam, but in reality such financing is more likely to come from joint-stock banks or the branches of foreign banks in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Botswana | In reality only the mineworker and diamond sorter unions may have the organizational strength to engage in collective bargaining. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | CARTESIAN, adj. Relating to Descartes, a famous philosopher, author of the celebrated dictum, Cogito ergo sum -- whereby he was pleased to suppose he demonstrated the reality of human existence. The dictum might be improved, however, thus: Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum -- "I think that I think, therefore I think that I am;" as close an approach to certainty as any philosopher has yet made. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
David Gest | I think if we could have shown our reality, Liza with Ray Charles. Even Liza with Kelly. Anybody, because she did want to perform, and said she would come back, it would have been so much fun for the viewers to watch. |
Liza Minnelli | What I'm saying is that I tried very hard to give them my reality and my reality is kind of interesting. |
Rush Limbaugh | For the past two weeks I've been addressing the complete lack of reality, and reliance on myth and emotion, in the realm of nuclear power. |
William Shatner | Oh, I had fun with them, but you have got to be careful because it's fun. The fun is the reality of it and yet is the unreality of it. So that line is very, very hazy. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Warren G. Harding | 1921-1923 | We have mistaken unpreparedness to embrace it to be a challenge of the reality, and due concern for making all citizens fit for participation will give added strength of citizenship and magnify our achievement. |
Herbert C. Hoover | 1929-1933 | But it will become a reality only through self-restraint and active effort in friendliness and helpfulness. |
Lyndon B. Johnson | 1963-1969 | In our cities last summer, we saw how wide is the gulf for some Americans between the promise and the reality of our society. |
Gerald Ford | 1974-1977 | Government exists to create and preserve conditions in which people can translate their ideas into practical reality. |
Ronald Reagan | 1981-1989 | Closing our eyes will not make reality disappear. |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | That is the only way we can make real welfare reform a reality in the lives of the American people. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Reality" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.87% of the time. "Reality" is used about 6,387 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.87% | 6,379 | 1,522 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.09% | 6 | 143,867 |
| Noun (common) | 0.03% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 6,387 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Country | Name |
| Luxembourg | Security Capital U.S. Reality (SC-US Reality) |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
Expressions using "reality": artificial reality ♦ become a reality ♦ crude reality ♦ dreams and reality ♦ immediate reality ♦ in reality ♦ inner reality ♦ naked reality ♦ reality check ♦ reality principle ♦ reality television ♦ Reality Testing ♦ Reality Therapy ♦ reality TV ♦ sober reality ♦ social reality ♦ turn into a reality ♦ understand reality ♦ unrelated to reality ♦ virtual reality ♦ virtual Reality Modeling Language. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "reality": reality-based, reality-denying, reality-distortion field, reality-effect, reality-effects, reality-orientated, reality-principle, reality-talk, reality-testing. | |
Ending with "reality": appearance-reality, non-reality, virtual-reality. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
virtual reality | 1,468 | love money reality show | 68 |
reality tv | 1,205 | edina reality.com | 67 |
reality | 1,018 | fan reality tv | 66 |
reality show | 529 | reality one | 58 |
reality porn | 440 | era reality | 55 |
remax reality | 303 | face reality | 54 |
reality porn site | 261 | virtual reality sex | 53 |
reality show tv | 258 | century 21 reality | 51 |
reality television | 208 | reality usa | 50 |
prudential reality | 169 | reality executive | 47 |
edina reality | 152 | reality check | 47 |
reality therapy | 132 | bite hawke reality | 46 |
reality sex | 124 | midgett reality | 46 |
reality sex site | 114 | exit reality | 45 |
iowa reality | 93 | coldwell banker reality | 45 |
reality bite | 86 | abbott reality | 44 |
virtual reality game | 81 | love money reality tv | 42 |
northwood reality | 81 | reality watson | 41 |
fox reality show | 78 | keller and williams reality | 41 |
news online reality | 71 | elastic reality | 41 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "reality"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | waarheid (truth). (various references) | |
Albanian | realizëm (realism), realitet (actuality, case, fact, matter of fact, outness, real, substantiality), fakt (consideration, datum, deed, evidence, fact, proof, thing, truth), e vërtetë (case, fact, real, sooth, truth, Verity). (various references) | |
Arabic | في الواقع (actually, as a matter of fact, as good as, by sheer force, de facto, factually, fundamentally, in effect, in fact, indeed, rather, really, truly, truth), في الحق (truth), واقع (effect), حقيقة (actuality, certainty, fact, genuineness, matter of fact, sooth, truth, veracity, verity), الفعلية كون الشئ فعليا (actuality). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | същност (entity, essence, gist, inwardness, juice, kernel, merits, nature, pith, point, quiddity, self, spirit, sum, thisness), реалност (actuality, positive, substance, tangibility), реализъм (realism, representationalism), нещо съществуващо (entity), нещо действително, правда (justice, truth), истинска същност, истинност (authenticity, trueness, truth, veracity), действителност (actuality, deed, fact, positive, real, sooth, truth). (various references) | |
Catalan | veritat (truth). (various references) | |
Chinese | 现实 (Realities), 現實 (actual, actuality, real), 實際 (actual, practice). (various references) | |
Czech | realita, skuteènost (actuality, fact, life, matter of fact, Verity). (various references) | |
Danish | sandhed (truth). (various references) | |
Dutch | realiteit (actuality). (various references) | |
Esperanto | realaĵo, vero (truth). (various references) | |
Faeroese | sannleiki (truth). (various references) | |
Farsi | هستی (Essence, Existence, Objectivity), واقعیت (Objectivity, Verity), حقیقت (Act, Principle, Truth, Verity), اصلیت (Identity, Paternity), اصالت وجود. (various references) | |
Finnish | totuus (truth), todenperäisyys (accuracy, truth), todellisuus. (various references) | |
French | réalité. (various references) | |
Frisian | wierheid (truth). (various references) | |
German | Wirklichkeit (actuality, objectivity, substantiality, substantiveness, truth), Realität (actuality). (various references) | |
Greek | πραγματικότητα (actuality, actualness, substance, veritableness). (various references) | |
Hebrew | ממשות (concreteness, substance), ממש (concreteness, importance, really, substance, very), משש (palpability), מציאותיות (existence, realism), מציאות (actuality, essence, existence, sooth), ישות (being, entity, essence, existence, substance), עלילות (action, deed). (various references) | |
Hungarian | valóság (actuality, deed, entity, epiphany, fact, sooth, to give colour to sg, true, truth, Verity), realitás (actuality). (various references) | |
Icelandic | veruleiki, sannleikur (truth). (various references) | |
Indonesian | kenyataan (fact). (various references) | |
Irish | fírinne (truth). (various references) | |
Italian | verità (low down, sooth, truth, truthful, verity), realtà (actuality, fact, objectivity). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 事実 (fact, truth), 如実 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ほんしつ (essence, true nature), じじつ (date, fact, time, truth), じっそう (implementation, insertion, mounting, package, real state of affairs), じつ (essence, faith, fidelity, kindness, sincerity, substance, truth), じつざい (existence), げんじつ, いんぜん (decree of cloistered emperor, imperial command, latent power, secret), はくしん (true to life), ほんとう (boom, main island, price jump, stealing home, this island, truth, turning upside-down), たい (against, another intention, band, be crowned with, body, company, complying with, corps, double-mindedness, fickleness, form, ill will, image counter, keeping in mind, malice, obedience, object, opposition, party, ratio, receive, schnapper, sea bream, secret purpose, snapper, style, substance, the body, ulterior motive, versus), さね (truth), さな (truth), しん (8th in rank, Buddhist sect originating in the thirteenth century, confidence, core, devotion, eighth sign of the Chinese calendar, faith, fidelity, genuineness, heart, marrow, new, reliance, sincerity, trust, truth, wick), しんじつ (faithfulness, honesty, sincerity, truth), リアリティ , リアリティー , にょじつ. (various references) | |
Korean | 현실 (Actualities, Actuality, Realities). (various references) | |
Manx | rieught, rieughid (actuality, authenticity, realism), feerid (authenticity, axiom, perfection, simplicity, truth, veracity). (various references) | |
Norwegian | sannhet (truth). (various references) | |
Papiamen | berdat (truth), berdá (truth). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ealityray.(various references) | |
Polish | prawda (truth). (various references) | |
Portuguese | realidade (actuality, deed, fact, real, substantiality, tangibility, truth, verity). (various references) | |
Romanian | realitate (deed, fact, substance, tangibility), viaţã (alacrity, animation, being, biography, career, cheerfulness, day, existence, life, living, pepper, spirit, sprightliness, vitality), veridicitate (probability, truthfulness, veracity), fidelitate (attachment, constancy, exactness, faith, faithfulness, fealty, fidelity, retentiveness, staunchness, tenacity, troth), fapt (affair, case, circumstance, deed, event, fact, incident, paradox, phenomenon), existenţã (availability, being, existence, life, living, presence, subsistence), evidenţã (accounts, evidence, obviousless, openness, palpability, self-evidence, visibility), adevãr (fact, sooth, troth, truth). (various references) | |
Russian | действительность (actualities, actuality, matter of fact, real, real life). (various references) | |
Scottish | fìrinn (truth). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | realnost, stvarnost (actuality, verity), java (awareness, java). (various references) | |
Spanish | verdad (low down, right, sooth, the truth, truth, Verity), realidad (actuality, fact, objectivity). (various references) | |
Swedish | verklighet (actuality, entity, truth), realitet (actuality, fact). (various references) | |
Turkish | realite (the real), hakikat (fact, sooth, the true, truth), gerçekte var olan şeyler, gerçeklik (actuality, authenticity, effect, genuineness, literality, the real, trueness, truth, veracity, Verity), gerçek (actual, actualities, authentic, bona fide, dinkum, earnest, exact, fact, factual, for real, genuine, honest-to-god, honest-to-goodness, intrinsic, literal, low down, lowdown, proper, pucka, pukka, real, right, rightful, sincere, sooth, sterling, straight out, substantial, tangible, the real, the true, troth, true, truth, truthful, unfeigned, veracious, veracity, veritable, Verity, very, virtual). (various references) | |
Turkmen | hakykat (truth), hakykan. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | істинність, справжність (authenticity, genuineness, identity, originality), реальність (actuality, entity, positive, substantiality, tangibility, tangible), факт (circumstance, deed, fact), дійсність (actuality, deed, real). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | thực tế (actual, actuality, business-like, down-to-earth), thực tại, tính chất xác thực, sự vật có thực tính chất chính xác, sự thực (verity). (various references) | |
