real world meaning: definition, quotations

real world

nounalso spelled real-world

The realm of human experience comprising physical objects, and excluding theoretical constructs, hypotheses, artificial environments, and "virtual" worlds such as the Internet, computer simulations, or the imagination.

Near-synonym: real life
It's time to relocate this experiment from the laboratory into the real world.

3 more examples

If you’re not in business yet, but plan to launch an Internet business, you’ll ignore the real world at your peril. Notice that all the large Web businesses advertise in the real world.2001, Peter Kent, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Internet, page 243:
And again, real-world poker makes demands on a player that Internet poker does not. [...] Stamina, then, is an asset to your play in the real world.2003, John Vorhaus, Killer Poker Online:
Bureau of Ordnance's first reaction when they learned of this was to recommend disciplinary action against any U.S. Navy officer who'd made alterations, ostensibly for "improper maintenance" of the Mark 14, which, they continued to insist, was absolutely fine. Meanwhile, back in the real world, the newly-promoted Rear Admiral Lockwood had taken over command of U.S. submarine efforts in the most active part of the Pacific Campaign. With summer of 1942 approaching, his forces had fired off more than a year's production of Mark 14s in around six months, and had precious little to show for it.2020 February 12, Drachinifel, 15:22 from the start, in The Mark 14 Torpedo - Failure is Like Onions, archived from the original on 24 Nov 2022:

Derived terms: real-worlder, real-world time
Related terms: real-world

real-world

adj

Having a practicable, verifiable quality; not imaginary, theoretical or based in a non-physical realm, such as heaven or cyberspace.

The moon rocket was a real-world application of astrophysics.
In fact, because the Internet is accessible from almost everywhere in the world, transactions whose real-world analogues would have been restricted to only one or two jurisdictions may potentially be subject to every jurisdiction—this is particularly clear in the case of advertising via a Web site.2004, Chris Reed, Internet Law, →ISBN, page 2:

1 more example

But these digital currencies, called “stable” because they are backed by real-world assets such as the dollar, have now become a pet project of the US administration and a hot topic in corporate boardrooms.2025 July 5, Philip Stafford, Akila Quinio, “Stablecoins begin to enter the mainstream with backing from Trump administration”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 11:

Coordinate terms: in-game, IRL, real world