real world

• real-world (when used as a noun in apposition)

real world (not comparable)

1. Alternative form of real-world

real world (plural real worlds)

1. 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.

   It's time to relocate this experiment from the laboratory into the real world.

   • 2001, Peter Kent, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Internet, page 243:

     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.

   • 2003, John Vorhaus, Killer Poker Online‎:

     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.

   • 2020 February 12, Drachinifel, 15:22 from the start, in The Mark 14 Torpedo - Failure is Like Onions‎, archived from the original on 24 November 2022:

     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.

• real-worlder
• real-world time

• real life