Standard Lemma guide

surrealism

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /səˈɹiː(.ə)l.ɪz.əm/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • UK: /syːˈɹiː(.ə)l.ɪz.əm/
  • CMU ARPABET: S ER0 IY1 L IH0 Z AH0 M Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
  • CMU ARPABET 2: S ER0 IY1 AH0 L IH2 Z AH0 M Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

An artistic movement and an aesthetic philosophy that aims for the liberation of the mind by emphasizing the critical and imaginative powers of the subconscious.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: art, arts

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Art with a surreal aesthetic or narrative, regardless of whether or not it is linked to the surrealist movement.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, informal, uncountable

Topics: art, arts

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a 20th century movement of artists and writers (developing out of dadaism) who used fantastic images and incongruous juxtapositions in order to represent unconscious thoughts and dreams

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: artistic movement, art movement

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *úp Proto-Indo-European *-er Proto-Indo-European *upér Proto-Italic *super Latin super Latin super- Old French sur- French sur- Proto-Indo-European *(H)reh1-der. Proto-Indo-European *(H)reh1ís Proto-Italic *reis Classical Latin rēs Proto-Indo-European *h2el-der.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Late Latin reālisder. Old French reel Middle French real French réel Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íďďō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *-mós Ancient Greek -μός (-mós) Ancient Greek -ῐσμός (-ĭsmós)der. Latin -ismusbor. French -isme French réalisme French surréalismebor. English surrealism Borrowed from French surréalisme. By surface analysis, sur- + realism or surreal + -ism.

Across languages

Translations

56 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: سُرْيَالِيَّة (suryāliyya) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Armenian: սյուրռեալիզմ (syurṙealizm) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Armenian: գերիրապաշտություն (gerirapaštutʻyun) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Azerbaijani: sürrealizm — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Bengali: পরাবাস্তববাদ (porabastobbad) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Bulgarian: сюрреали́зъм (sjurrealízǎm) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Burmese: ဆာရီယယ်လစ်ဇင် (hcariyailacjang) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Catalan: surrealisme — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Chinese Mandarin: 超現實主義 /超现实主义 (chāoxiànshízhǔyì) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Chuvash: сюрреализм (sjurrealizm) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Crimean Tatar: sürrealizm — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Czech: surrealismus — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Danish: surrealismen — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Dutch: Surrealisme — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Esperanto: superrealismo — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Estonian: sürrealism — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Finnish: surrealismi — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • French: surréalisme — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Georgian: სიურრეალიზმი (siurrealizmi) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • German: Surrealismus — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Greek: υπερρεαλισμός (yperrealismós) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Hebrew: הסוריאליזם — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Indonesian: surealisme — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Irish: osréalachas — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Italian: surrealismo — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Japanese: シュルレアリスム (shururearisumu) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Kannada: ಸರ್ರಿಯಲಿಸಮ್ (sarriyalisam) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Kazakh: сюрреализм (sürrealizm) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Korean: 서리얼리즘 (seorieollijeum) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Kyrgyz: сюрреализм (syurrealizm) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Malayalam: സർറിയലിസം (saṟṟiyalisaṁ) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Māori: toi pohewa — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Mongolian: сюрреализм (sjurrealizm) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Nepali: अतियथार्थवाद (atiyathārthavād) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Norwegian: surrealisme — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Persian: فراواقعگرایی (farâ-vâqe'-garâyi) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Polish: surrealizm — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Portuguese: surrealismo — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Romanian: suprarealism — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Russian: сюрреали́зм (sjurrealízm) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Scottish Gaelic: os-fhìreachas — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Serbo-Croatian: nadrealizam — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Slovak: surrealizmus — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Spanish: surrealismo — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Swedish: surrealism — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Tagalog: pagkamakakubtunay — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Tamil: அடிமன வெளிப்பாட்டியம் (aṭimaṉa veḷippāṭṭiyam) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Telugu: సర్రియలిజం (sarriyalijaṁ) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Thai: ลัทธิเหนือจริง — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Thai: เซอร์เรียลลิซึม — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Turkish: sürrealizm — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Turkish: gerçeküstücülük — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Uzbek: surrealizm — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Vietnamese: chủ nghĩa siêu thực — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Vietnamese: nghệ thuật siêu thực — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
  • Yiddish: סוררעאַליזמ (surrealizm) — artistic movement and aesthetic philosophy
Real reading context

surrealism in complete knowledge articles