Meaning & use
realism
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Meanings
noununcountable
A practical way of seeing things as they truly are and dealing with them without false hopes.
Grammar: No plural and no article in this sense: she approached the problem with realism.
Patterns
- realism about something
- realism in something
Her realism about the budget kept the project from collapsing.
A touch of realism is needed before we promise customers anything.
He combined optimism with realism when he set the team's goals.
noununcountable
A style in art, film or writing that shows ordinary life and people in a truthful, unidealized way.
Grammar: Often capitalized when naming a period: nineteenth-century Realism.
Patterns
- realism in something
The novel is praised for its gritty realism.
Courbet is a leading figure of French realism in painting.
The director chose realism over spectacle, filming in actual apartments.
noununcountabletechnical
In philosophy, the view that things exist independently of how people think about or perceive them.
Grammar: A technical term, often paired with a type: moral realism.
The philosophy seminar compared realism with idealism.
Scientific realism holds that our best theories describe a real world.
She wrote her thesis on moral realism.
Common combinations
- gritty realism
- The series is known for its gritty realism about life in a port town.
- political realism
- Political realism treats national interest as the main driver of foreign policy.
- social realism
- Social realism in cinema often focuses on working-class lives.
- a sense of realism
- The sound design adds a real sense of realism to the game.
- dose of realism
- The report was a welcome dose of realism after months of hype.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pragmatism
- Pragmatism stresses doing what works in practice, while realism stresses seeing facts clearly.
- practicality
- Practicality is about being sensible and useful, not necessarily about accepting harsh truths.
- authenticity
- Authenticity describes being genuine or true to the original, and it fits art or experiences better than attitudes.
Opposites
Word family
- real adjective
- actually existing, not imagined
- realist noun
- a person who deals with things as they are
- realistic adjective
- sensible and based on what is possible
- realistically adverb
- in a practical, honest way
- realize verb
- to understand clearly or make real
Commonly confused: realism or reality?
realism vs reality
Reality is the actual state of things, while realism is an attitude or an artistic style that deals with that state.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'realism' in the art sense?
Choose one answer.
The first option is the only one where realism names a truthful style of depiction. The others misuse it as a plain object, a financial term or a verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “realism”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.