Reality
/riˈælɪti/noun
The state or quality of being real; what exists independently of imagination or illusion.
Did you know?In medieval Latin, the ancestor of reality was tied to res, meaning “thing” or “matter,” so the word began as a philosophical way to ask what is actually a thing versus an idea.
Etymological Timeline
Latin
Latin
rēālitās
“thingness; the quality of being a thing”
Late Latin
Latin
rēs
“a thing, matter, affair, circumstance”
Old French
Old French
réalité
“reality; actuality”
14th–15th Century
Middle English
realyte
“actual existence; truth of things”
Modern English
English
reality
“the state of things as they actually exist”