surrealist

surrealist — adjective

1. connected with the early 20th-century artistic movement known as surrealism, in

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

connected with the early 20th-century artistic movement known as surrealism, in which artists and writers created strange, dreamlike images and scenes that combine ordinary objects in unexpected or impossible ways.

Example

The museum's new wing displays surrealist paintings from the 1920s and 1930s.

collocation: surrealist painting

Linh wrote her final essay on dream imagery in early surrealist cinema.

collocation: surrealist cinema

Common collocations
  • surrealist painting
  • surrealist movement
  • surrealist artist
  • surrealist film
  • surrealist literature
  • surrealist poetry
Synonyms
  • surreal

    much broader everyday use — describes anything strange or dreamlike, not limited to the art movement

  • dreamlike

    focuses on the hazy, unreal quality of dreams; less tied to the historical movement

Grammar Patterns

surrealist + noun

Usage Note

This adjective usually appears before a noun (attributive position). Common nouns it modifies include painting, movement, artist, film, literature, and poetry. When the reference is to the official historical movement, some writers capitalise the word.

Common Mistakes

The dream I had last night was very surrealist.
The dream I had last night was very surreal.
Use 'surreal' for everyday experiences that feel strange or dreamlike; 'surrealist' refers specifically to the 20th-century art movement.

surrealist — noun

Word family

  • surreal
    adjectiveB2
  • surrealism
    nounB2
  • surrealistically
    adverbC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Surrealist is the only word in this group that refers specifically to the 20th-century art movement. Use it when describing works, artists, or techniques that belong to or are inspired by official surrealism. Surreal is the everyday adjective for anything that feels strange, illogical, or dreamlike — a situation can be surreal, but it cannot be surrealist unless it is consciously modelled on the movement. Dreamlike focuses on the soft, hazy quality of dreams and is often more positive than surreal. Bizarre implies something is weird in a shocking or unsettling way and carries a stronger negative tone. Fantastic once meant 'existing only in the imagination' but today is used more broadly for anything impressive or extreme. For example: a dreamlike sequence in a film might feel soft and magical; a bizarre sequence might feel disturbing; a surrealist sequence deliberately uses techniques from the surrealist movement.

surrealist ↗surreal ↗dreamlikebizarre ↗fantastic ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • surrealist movement
  • surrealist art
  • a committed surrealist

Prepositions

  • of (the surrealists)
  • in (surrealist style)

Etymology

FrenchEnglish

Surrealist comes from the French word surréaliste, which was formed from sur- (meaning 'above' or 'beyond') and réaliste ('realist'). The movement's name was first used around 1917 by the French writer Guillaume Apollinaire. It was later adopted by André Breton and his circle to describe their new approach to art and writing, which aimed to express the workings of the unconscious mind. The English word appeared in the 1920s as the movement spread beyond France.