real life

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real life (countable and uncountable, plural real lives)

1. Life outside of a contrived or fantastical environment; often used in comparison to events depicted in drama.
2. A person or thing that exists in reality (vs. fictional).
   • 2011, Julia DeVillers, Jennifer Roy, Take Two:

     I knew it was just a silly quiz, but it was annoying that I couldn't even get a crush match in a magazine—or real life.

3. (by extension, sometimes capitalized) Life outside the Internet.
4. (by extension) Pressing day-to-day commitments.

   I kept meaning to look for a better-paying job, but real life intervened.

• real life experience
• IRL

• → German: Reallife
• → Korean: 리얼라이프 (rieollaipeu)

• real world
• meatspace