1 actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact; not imagined or supposed: Julius Caesar was a real person | her many illnesses, real and imaginary | a story drawing on real events.
• used to emphasize the significance or seriousness of a situation or circumstance: there is a real danger of civil war | the competitive threat from overseas is very real.
• Philosophy relating to something as it is, not merely as it may be described or distinguished: Locke's distinction between the real and nominal essence of substances.
2 (of a substance or thing) not imitation or artificial; genuine: the earring was presumably real gold.
• true or actual: his real name is James | this isn't my real reason for coming.
• [attributive] (of a person or thing) rightly so called; proper: he's my idea of a real man | Jamie is my only real friend.
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