as in irrational
very strange or unusual; having the quality of a dream
a surreal atmosphere at the festival The whole situation was completely surreal.
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Recent Examples of surreal
For the staff and the readers of the Post, the next day was equally surreal: the paper’s publisher and C.E.O., William Lewis, announced that its planned endorsement of Kamala Harris would not run.
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David Remnick, The New Yorker, 30 Oct. 2024
Puzzles range from the surreal, like finding a clearly out-of-time object to appease a ghost, to practical, like finding key cards and fixing the building’s HVAC.
—Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 22 Oct. 2024
This surreal display took place not in Palo Alto or Menlo Park but in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at the third edition of the city’s Global AI Summit, in September of this year.
—Sam Winter-Levy, Foreign Affairs, 28 Oct. 2024
Highlights include a surreal scene in which a man is buried alive and an unforgettable climax involving the literal blood of Christ.
—Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 28 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for surreal 
David Remnick, The New Yorker, 30 Oct. 2024
Puzzles range from the surreal, like finding a clearly out-of-time object to appease a ghost, to practical, like finding key cards and fixing the building’s HVAC.
—Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 22 Oct. 2024
This surreal display took place not in Palo Alto or Menlo Park but in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at the third edition of the city’s Global AI Summit, in September of this year.
—Sam Winter-Levy, Foreign Affairs, 28 Oct. 2024
Highlights include a surreal scene in which a man is buried alive and an unforgettable climax involving the literal blood of Christ.
—Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 28 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for surreal
Recent Examples of Synonyms for surreal
Adjective
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Another possible argument is the arbitrators’ decision is irrational given the evidence and testimony or, similarly, the arbitrators relied on materials and insights that were inapplicable or vulnerable to bias.Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 4 Nov. 2024
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Stereotypes like these harm Latinas by turning us into unhinged and irrational women in the popular imagination of white U.S. society.Nicole Froio, refinery29.com, 29 Oct. 2024
Adjective
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Dilettante listing brokers can also cost sellers with bad marketing, weird staging, and a lack of responsiveness.Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 14 Nov. 2024
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He is represented by no gallery, and works in a basement in Brooklyn, from which emerges the fruits of his weird obsessions.Jerry Saltz, Vulture, 13 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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One day, a student noticed something strange: One of the rats in the group trained to expect positive experiences had its tail straight up with a crook at the end, resembling the handle of an old-fashioned umbrella.Kelly Lambert, Discover Magazine, 14 Nov. 2024
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The result was a strange hodgepodge of a TV series — novel and interesting in hindsight, but maybe not distinct enough to inspire a spot on the DVR at the time.Joshua Rivera, Vulture, 13 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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As Barca laboured and eventually failed to land some of its transfer targets such as Nico Williams, the proposal for Casado might not have seemed too unreasonable at the time.Tom Sanderson, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024
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The indictment alleged Hankison deprived Taylor of the right to be free from unreasonable seizures and deprived her neighbors of the right to be free from the deprivation of liberty without due process of law.Meredith Deliso, ABC News, 2 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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This absurd claim is an extension of their relentless obsession to remove checks and balances within our government.Marina Johnson, The Courier-Journal, 5 Nov. 2024
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The three books so far are deeply romantic, gorgeously tragic, smart as hell, and written in this absurd baroque, irreverent language.Constance Grady, Vox, 4 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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The retirement of Chiarello made this race an unusual exercise for South Bay voters who got to choose between two candidates.Robert Salonga, The Mercury News, 6 Nov. 2024
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It's more accurately seen as a return to the township's Republican norm, after one unusual term with a Democrat in charge.Bill Laytner, Detroit Free Press, 6 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has argued the requirement is meaningless because mail ballots are time stamped upon their receipt by election officials, a position backed by Pennsylvania’s Republican secretary of state.Zach Schonfeld, The Hill, 1 Nov. 2024
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Without ads, that would be a meaningless statistic.Yeo Boon Ping, CNBC, 21 Oct. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near surreal
Cite this Entry
“Surreal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/surreal. Accessed 23 Nov. 2024.
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