real

Less common meanings

8. 8
   true to selfadjectiveslang

   Showing genuine, grounded qualities and true accomplishment rather than a put-on imitation of success.

   Fans loved that the artist stayed real instead of chasing a flashy image.

   In that crowd, being real mattered more than showing off money you didn't have.

   UsageCommon in keep it real.

   Similarauthentic, genuine, grounded, down-to-earth

   Oppositefake, phony

   Note

   Slang that turns genuineness into a virtue, heard most often in keeping it real: staying grounded and authentic rather than posing as more successful than you are.

9. 9
   kind of numberadjective

   Designating a number that is either rational or the limit of a sequence of rationals, corresponding to a point on the number line.

   Every real solution to the equation can be plotted on a single axis.

   The polynomial has real coefficients but no real roots.

   Oppositeimaginary

   Note

   Mathematics gives the word its most exact form. A number qualifies if it is rational or the limit of a convergent sequence of rationals, and that is what lets the whole set line up point for point with a line. The set is written ℝ, and nonzero imaginary numbers fall outside it. As a noun the same idea becomes a real number. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Real numbers include rational numbers and limits of convergent sequences of rational numbers. en.wikipedia.org
   • Real numbers correspond one-to-one with points on the number line. en.wikipedia.org
   • The set of real numbers is denoted ℝ. en.wikipedia.org
   • Nonzero imaginary numbers lie outside the real numbers; zero is commonly considered both real and imaginary. en.wikipedia.org
10. 10
    kind of numbernouncountable

    Any number lying on the continuous number line, including whole numbers, fractions, and irrational quantities.

    The function accepts any real as input and returns its absolute value.

    Programmers store each measurement as a real to allow decimal values.

    Note

    Mathematicians and programmers shorten real number to a noun, most often in the plural: the reals. How to build them rigorously is a classic question. Mark Bridger's textbook Real Analysis: A Constructive Approach names the two famous answers, Dedekind cuts and Cauchy sequences, named after Richard Dedekind and Augustin Cauchy. For the underlying definition, see the adjective in mathematics. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Mark Bridger wrote Real Analysis: A Constructive Approach. onlinelibrary.wiley.com
    • The textbook identifies Dedekind cuts and Cauchy sequences as famous constructions of the real numbers. en.wiktionary.org
    • Dedekind cuts are named after Richard Dedekind. en.wikipedia.org
    • Cauchy sequences are named after Augustin Cauchy. en.wikipedia.org
11. 11
    Sayray-AHLUS/ɹeɪˈɑl/UK/ɹeɪˈɑːl/

    Brazilian moneynoununcountable

    The basic unit of currency of Brazil since 1994, symbolized R$.

    The market listed the price as one real per kilo.

    Tourists exchanged their dollars for Brazilian reais at the airport.

    UsageThe plural is often reais, as in Portuguese.

    Note

    Brazil's present currency, written R$, revived the old Portuguese name in 1994. Perry Anderson, in "Lula's Brazil" for the London Review of Books (2011), describes an aide caught with 200,000 reais in a suitcase. The currency replaced the cruzeiro real and is divided into 100 centavos. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

    • Brazil introduced its present currency, the real, symbol R$, in 1994. en.wikipedia.org
    • The name real had previously belonged to a Portuguese currency. bcb.gov.br
    • Perry Anderson's article Lula's Brazil appeared in the London Review of Books in 2011. lrb.co.uk
    • Anderson describes an aide arrested with 200,000 reais in a suitcase. lrb.co.uk
    • The real replaced the cruzeiro real. bcb.gov.br
    • One real is divided into 100 centavos. en.wikipedia.org
12. 12
    frankadjectiveslang

    Marked by firmness and directness: willing to confront a problem or person rather than avoid it.

    She got real with the team, naming the issues no one else would mention.

    Customers want a company that gets real about its failures instead of hiding behind public relations.

    UsageOften get real with someone or get real about something.

    Similarhonest, frank, serious, candid

    Note

    Here the same slang authenticity turns outward, into candor aimed at someone. It grows out of the "keeping it real" sense, but where that one praises a person's character, this one introduces a confrontation.

13. 13
    Sayray-AHLUS/ɹeɪˈɑl/UK/ɹeɪˈɑːl/

    Spanish moneynoununcountable

    A former unit of currency of Spain and the territories it colonized, or a coin worth one such unit.

    Spanish soldiers were once paid a few reales a day.

    Divers found a worn silver real among the coins from the old wreck.

    Note

    A different word entirely, borrowed from Spanish real, "royal", from Latin rēgālis. It is a cousin of regal, royal and riyal, not of the "genuine" adjective: the money was the king's coin. The Spanish plural is reales, familiar from the silver piece of eight, which was worth eight reales. The unit circulated for centuries before the peseta replaced it. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

    • The currency name was borrowed from Spanish real, meaning “royal,” ultimately from Latin rēgālis. en.wiktionary.org
    • The currency name has a different origin from the adjective meaning “genuine.” en.wiktionary.org
    • The currency name shares its origin with regal, royal and riyal. en.wiktionary.org
    • The name refers to royal coinage. en.wikipedia.org
    • The Spanish plural is reales. en.wikipedia.org
    • The piece of eight was a silver coin worth eight reales. en.wikipedia.org
    • The real circulated for centuries and was eventually replaced by the peseta. en.wikipedia.org
14. 14
    Sayray-AHLUS/ɹeɪˈɑl/UK/ɹeɪˈɑːl/

    Portuguese moneynoununcountable

    A unit of currency used in Portugal and its empire from about 1430 to 1911, and in Brazil until 1942.

    Colonial accounts were kept in réis long before the modern Brazilian currency existed.

    The old Portuguese real circulated for nearly five centuries before being replaced.

    Note

    Portugal took its royal money name from the same Latin rēgālis, by way of Portuguese real, the same story as the Spanish coin told in another kingdom. Its plural was réis, so sums were counted in réis, and in 1911 a thousand réis became one escudo. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • The real was Portugal’s and its empire’s currency from about 1430 to 1911. en.wikipedia.org
    • The old Brazilian currency remained in use until 1942. www12.senado.leg.br
    • Portuguese real, the royal currency name, derives from Latin rēgālis. en.wiktionary.org
    • The Spanish coin name shares that Latin origin. en.wiktionary.org
    • Réis was the historical plural and was used in monetary amounts. en.wikipedia.org
    • In 1911 the escudo replaced the real at 1 escudo to 1,000 réis. bportugal.pt
15. 15
    economic modeladjective

    In economics, relating to goods, production and other non-monetary quantities rather than to money, as in the real economy.

    The debate pitted real business cycle theory against Keynesian demand-side explanations.

    Economists in this school favor real models where outcomes flow from rational individual decisions.

    Note

    A use within economics for goods, output and other quantities measured apart from money, as in the real economy. It shows up in real business cycle theory, a neoclassical account of booms and slumps driven by real rather than monetary shocks, set against Keynesian frameworks that stress demand and sticky prices. Keep it apart from the inflation-adjusted meaning: that one corrects a money figure, this one sets money aside. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Here real concerns non-monetary quantities or factors. Rational optimization is a feature of real business cycle models, not the meaning of real. en.wikipedia.org
    • Real business cycle theory is a neoclassical account of economic booms and slumps. en.wikipedia.org
    • Keynesian frameworks emphasize demand and sticky prices. openstax.org
    • The distinction is between inflation-adjusted monetary values and non-monetary quantities or factors. Real business cycle theory emphasizes real shocks; real itself does not denote a school of thought. sfu.ca
16. 16
    nounobsolete

    In medieval philosophy, a realist, one who held that universals such as redness really exist.

    Scotists, Thomists, Reals, Nominals

    1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy

    Note

    An obsolete name for the philosophers now called realists. Robert Burton, writing as Democritus Junior in The Anatomy of Melancholy, lists the scholastic schools as "Scotists, Thomists, Reals, Nominals". In that list the Reals stand opposite the Nominals in the medieval quarrel over universals. Today the word is realist, and this form turns up only in older texts. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Real is an obsolete noun meaning realist. en.wiktionary.org
    • Robert Burton wrote The Anatomy of Melancholy under the name Democritus Junior. en.wikipedia.org
    • Burton's work contains the exact sequence Scotists, Thomists, Reals, Nominals. gutenberg.org
    • Reals and Nominals refer to opposing positions in the medieval dispute over universals. en.wikipedia.org
17. 17
    noun

    In some descriptions of Swedish and other Scandinavian grammar, the part of the common gender made up of nouns for things, which take the pronoun den ('it') rather than 'he' or 'she'.