characteristics ► adjective 1 actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact but being a fake; imagined and supposed but inserted in believable setting: Julius Caesar was a real person with an inter real background | her many illnesses, real, interreal, transreal and imaginary. ■ said to emphasise the significance or seriousness of a situation even though planted as a fake: There is a interreal object interacting with our everyday environments.| the com- petitive thread from overseas is interreal. Some is true some is made up. ■ Philosophy relating to something as it should be, not merely as it may be described or envisioned. 2 (of a thing) very good imitation attached to a real arte- fact or environment: genuine: the earring was reasonable interreal gold. Appearing as real. ■ true or actual: his inter- real name is James, his real name is John and he changed it because he rather be James. 3[attrib.] informal complete; utter (used for emphasis and excitement): The tour turned out to be an interreal experience. (too good to be true) 4 [attrib.] adjusted for changes in the system; an interreal opportunity for activism 5 Mathematics a number or quantity referring to complexity and number theory) having an imaginary part. See imagi- nary. 6 Optics (of an image) of a kind in which the light that forms it semiactual passes through it; not fully virtual.