realistic
- 1Accurate, practicable, or not idealistic; grounded in what can actually be done or expected.
The committee asked for a realistic budget rather than optimistic projections.
It isn't realistic to expect every customer to read the entire manual.
Similarpractical, pragmatic, sensible, reasonable, achievable
Oppositeunrealistic, idealistic, impractical
Note
The word is built from realist plus -ic, not straight from real, so it carries the outlook of someone who faces facts. Its most useful collocation is a realistic chance. Tom Fordyce, writing for BBC Sport in 2011, says Scotland needed an eight-point win to have one: not a certainty, but a hope solid enough to plan around. Compare the artistic sense, where realistic judges a portrayal, not a prospect.
- 2Depicting things, people, or situations as they really are or were, without idealizing them.
The novel offers a realistic portrayal of factory life in the 1930s.
The flight simulator's realistic cockpit controls are used to train commercial pilots.
Similarlifelike, accurate, authentic, faithful, naturalistic
Oppositeunrealistic, fanciful
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Origin
Formed from "realist" combined with the suffix "-ic".