Synonyms: insubstantial, unreal, unsubstantial
Definition: lacking material form or substance; unreal
Usage: as insubstantial as a dream; an insubstantial mirage on the horizon
Similar words: aerial, aeriform, aery, airy, ethereal
Definition: characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; as impalpable or intangible as air
Usage: figures light and aeriform come unlooked for and melt away- Thomas Carlyle; aerial fancies; an airy apparition; physical rather than ethereal forms
Similar words: wraithlike, shadowy
Definition: lacking in substance
Usage: strange fancies of unreal and shadowy worlds- W.A.Butler; dim shadowy forms; a wraithlike column of smoke
Similar words: stringy
Definition: consisting of or containing string or strings
Synonyms: unreal, artificial
Definition: contrived by art rather than nature
Usage: artificial flowers; artificial flavoring; an artificial diamond; artificial fibers; artificial sweeteners
Similar words: arranged, staged
Definition: deliberately arranged for effect
Usage: one of those artfully staged photographs
Similar words: bionic
Definition: having particular physiological functions augmented or replaced by electronic or electromechanical components
Similar words: bleached, colored, coloured, dyed
Definition: (used of color) artificially produced; not natural
Usage: a bleached blonde
Similar words: cardboard, unlifelike
Definition: without substance
Usage: cardboard caricatures of historical figures
Similar words: synthetic, celluloid
Definition: artificial as if portrayed in a film
Usage: a novel with flat celluloid characters
Similar words: stylised, stylized, conventionalised, conventionalized
Definition: using artistic forms and conventions to create effects; not natural or spontaneous
Usage: a stylized mode of theater production
Similar words: dummy
Definition: having the appearance of being real but lacking capacity to function
Usage: a dummy corporation
Similar words: substitute, ersatz
Definition: artificial and inferior
Usage: ersatz coffee; substitute coffee
Similar words: factitious
Definition: not produced by natural forces
Usage: brokers created a factitious demand for stocks
Similar words: fake, false, faux, simulated, imitation
Definition: not genuine or real; being an imitation of the genuine article
Usage: it isn't fake anything; it's real synthetic fur; faux pearls; false teeth; decorated with imitation palm leaves; a purse of simulated alligator hide
Similar words: semisynthetic, synthetic, man-made
Definition: not of natural origin; prepared or made artificially
Usage: man-made fibers; synthetic leather
Similar words: near
Definition: closely resembling the genuine article
Usage: near beer; a dress of near satin
Similar words: painted
Definition: lacking substance or vitality as if produced by painting
Usage: in public he wore a painted smile
Synonyms: unreal
Definition: lacking in reality or substance or genuineness; not corresponding to acknowledged facts or criteria
Usage: ghosts and other unreal entities; unreal propaganda serving as news
Similar words: dreamed
Definition: conceived of or imagined or hoped for
Usage: his dreamed symphony that would take the world of music by storm
Similar words: envisioned, pictured, visualised, visualized
Definition: seen in the mind as a mental image
Usage: the glory of his envisioned future; the snow-covered Alps pictured in her imagination; the visualized scene lacked the ugly details of real life
Similar words: eye-deceiving, trompe-l'oeil
Definition: creating the illusion of seeing reality
Usage: the visual deception of trompe-l'oeil art
Similar words: fabled, legendary
Definition: celebrated in fable or legend
Usage: the fabled Paul Bunyan and his blue ox; legendary exploits of Jesse James
Similar words: fabricated, fancied, fictional, fictitious
Definition: formed or conceived by the imagination
Usage: a fabricated excuse for his absence; a fancied wrong; a fictional character
Similar words: fabulous, mythic, mythical, mythologic, mythological
Definition: based on or told of in traditional stories; lacking factual basis or historical validity
Usage: mythical centaurs; the fabulous unicorn
Similar words: notional, fanciful, imaginary
Definition: not based on fact; unreal
Usage: the falsehood about some fanciful secret treaties- F.D.Roosevelt; a small child's imaginary friends; to create a notional world for oneself
Similar words: fantastic, fantastical
Definition: existing in fancy only
Usage: fantastic figures with bulbous heads the circumference of a bushel- Nathaniel Hawthorne
Similar words: hallucinatory
Definition: characterized by or characteristic of hallucination
Usage: the bizarre hallucinatory dreams of fever- Jean Stafford
Similar words: illusional, illusionary
Definition: marked by or producing illusion
Usage: illusionary stage effects
Similar words: illusive, illusory
Definition: based on or having the nature of an illusion
Usage: illusive hopes of finding a better job; Secret activities offer presidents the alluring but often illusory promise that they can achieve foreign policy goals without the bothersome debate and open decision that are staples of democracy
Similar words: make-believe, pretend
Definition: imagined as in a play
Usage: the make-believe world of theater; play money; dangling their legs in the water to catch pretend fish
Synonyms: unreal
Definition: not actually such; being or seeming fanciful or imaginary
Usage: this conversation is getting more and more unreal; the fantastically unreal world of government bureaucracy; the unreal world of advertising art
Similar words: deceptive, delusory
Definition: causing one to believe what is not true or fail to believe what is true
Usage: deceptive calm; a delusory pleasure
Similar words: dreamlike, surreal
Definition: resembling a dream
Usage: night invested the lake with a dreamlike quality; as irrational and surreal as a dream
Similar words: phantom
Definition: something apparently sensed but having no physical reality
Usage: seemed to hear faint phantom bells; the amputee's illusion of a phantom limb