in reality

1. 1.

   used to imply that one would expect the fact to be the opposite of that stated; surprisingly

   “you may actually be doing the right thing by walking out”

   “she actually spoke Latin”

   “they thought they made the rules but in reality they were only puppets”

   “people who seem stand-offish are in reality often simply nervous”

   Synonymsactually

Questions about in reality

What does in reality mean?

in reality means "used to imply that one would expect the fact to be the opposite of that stated; surprisingly".

What is another word for in reality?

Close synonyms include actually. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is in reality a common word?

in reality is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.