Having a dreamlike, bizarre quality that seems to defy logic or reality.
From French surréalisme, coined by Guillaume Apollinaire in 1917, meaning 'beyond real.' The prefix sur- 'over, above' combined with réel 'real' to describe art and experiences that transcend ordinary reality.
The word 'surreal' was born from a specific art movement but quickly escaped into everyday language to describe any experience that feels dreamlike or impossible. Salvador Dalí's melting clocks perfectly embody the surreal - familiar objects behaving in impossible ways.
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