Re·al a.
 1. Actually being or existing; not fictitious or imaginary; as, a description of real life.
 Whereat I waked, and found
 Before mine eyes all real, as the dream
 Had lively shadowed.   --Milton.
 2. True; genuine; not artificial, counterfeit, or factitious; often opposed to ostensible; as, the real reason; real Madeira wine; real ginger.
 Whose perfection far excelled
 Hers in all real dignity.   --Milton.
 3. Relating to things, not to persons. [Obs.]
    Many are perfect in men's humors that are not greatly capable of the real part of business.   --Bacon.
 4. Alg. Having an assignable arithmetical or numerical value or meaning; not imaginary.
 5. Law Pertaining to things fixed, permanent, or immovable, as to lands and tenements; as, real property, in distinction from personal or movable property.
 Chattels real Law, such chattels as are annexed to, or savor of, the realty, as terms for years of land. See Chattel.
 Real action Law, an action for the recovery of real property.
 Real assets Law, lands or real estate in the hands of the heir, chargeable with the debts of the ancestor.
 Real composition Eccl. Law, an agreement made between the owner of lands and the parson or vicar, with consent of the ordinary, that such lands shall be discharged from payment of tithes, in consequence of other land or recompense given to the parson in lieu and satisfaction thereof. --Blackstone.
 Real estate or Real property, lands, tenements, and hereditaments; freehold interests in landed property; property in houses and land. --Kent. --Burrill.
 Real presence R. C. Ch., the actual presence of the body and blood of Christ in the eucharist, or the conversion of the substance of the bread and wine into the real body and blood of Christ; transubstantiation. In other churches there is a belief in a form of real presence, not however in the sense of transubstantiation.
 Real servitude, called also Predial servitude Civil Law, a burden imposed upon one estate in favor of another estate of another proprietor. --Erskine. --Bouvier.
 Syn: -- Actual; true; genuine; authentic.
 Usage: -- Real, Actual. Real represents a thing to be a substantive existence; as, a real, not imaginary, occurrence. Actual refers to it as acted or performed; and, hence, when we wish to prove a thing real, we often say, “It actually exists,” “It has actually been done.” Thus its reality is shown by its actuality. Actual, from this reference to being acted, has recently received a new signification, namely, present; as, the actual posture of affairs; since what is now in action, or going on, has, of course, a present existence. An actual fact; a real sentiment.
 For he that but conceives a crime in thought,
 Contracts the danger of an actual fault.   --Dryden.
    Our simple ideas are all real; all agree to the reality of things.   --Locke.


 Thing n.
 1. Whatever exists, or is conceived to exist, as a separate entity, whether animate or inanimate; any separable or distinguishable object of thought.
    God made . . . every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind.   --Gen. i. 25.
    He sent after this manner; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt.   --Gen. xiv. 23.
    A thing of beauty is a joy forever.   --Keats.
 2. An inanimate object, in distinction from a living being; any lifeless material.
    Ye meads and groves, unconscious things!   --Cowper.
 3. A transaction or occurrence; an event; a deed.
    [And Jacob said] All these things are against me.   --Gen. xlii. 36.
    Which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things.   --Matt. xxi. 24.
 4. A portion or part; something.
    Wicked men who understand any thing of wisdom.   --Tillotson.
 5. A diminutive or slighted object; any object viewed as merely existing; -- often used in pity or contempt.
    See, sons, what things you are!   --Shak.
    The poor thing sighed, and . . . turned from me.   --Addison.
    I'll be this abject thing no more.   --Granville.
    I have a thing in prose.   --Swift.
 6. pl. Clothes; furniture; appurtenances; luggage; as, to pack or store one's things. [Colloq.]
 Note: ☞ Formerly, the singular was sometimes used in a plural or collective sense.
    And them she gave her moebles and her thing.   --Chaucer.
 Note: ☞ Thing was used in a very general sense in Old English, and is still heard colloquially where some more definite term would be used in careful composition.
 In the garden [he] walketh to and fro,
 And hath his things [i. e., prayers, devotions] said full courteously.   --Chaucer.
    Hearkening his minstrels their things play.   --Chaucer.
 7. Law Whatever may be possessed or owned; a property; -- distinguished from person.
 8. In Scandinavian countries, a legislative or judicial assembly.
 Things personal. Law Same as Personal property, under Personal.
 Things real. Same as Real property, under Real.

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 real property
      n : property consisting of houses and land [syn: real estate,
          realty]