61 Opposites of Real

John Spacey, February 04, 2021

Real describes truth, reality and fact. The most direct opposites of real describe the imaginary, hypothetical and false. It is tempting to include the abstract, virtual and intangible as nonreal. However, things can be fully real even if they have no physical form and differ from concrete realities. For example, a concept such as freedom or emotion such as fear do exist and are very real despite having no physical presence. The following are common opposites of real.

Artificial	Baseless
Bogus	Concocted
Conjecture	Counterfeit
Deceptive	Dishonest
Disinformation	Disputable
Dream	Erroneous
Fabricated	Fake
Fallacy	False
Falsehood	Fantasy
Fiction	Fictitious
Fraudulent	Hypothetical
Idealism	Illusion
Imaginary	Imitation
Inauthentic	Inexistent
Ingenuine	Insincere
Invalid	Legend
Lie	Made-up
Make-believe	Misconception
Misconstruction	Misinformation
Misinterpretation	Misunderstanding
Myth	Nominal
Nonreal	Notional
Petty	Phony
Pretend	Pseudo
Sham	Speculative
Story	Surreal
Tale	Tentative
Theoretical	Unfounded
Unproven	Unreal
Unsubstantiated	Untested
Untrue

Notes

Theoretical is often used incorrectly to describe conjecture where hypothetical would be more accurate. In science, the term theory common describes well accepted knowledge that can be viewed as more or less factual.