Real time or realtime?
real time is an adjective meaning “Communicated as the events being responded to occur; communicated or proceeding…”; realtime is an adjective meaning “Alternative form of real-time”. real time is written as two words and realtime as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between real time and realtime?
| real time | realtime | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun | adjective |
| Meaning | Communicated as the events being responded to occur; communicated or proceeding without much delay Of a system: that responds to events or signals within a predictable time after their occurrence; specifically in which the response time must be within the… The duration required by a computer system to complete a particular task | Alternative form of real-time |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɹiːəltaɪm/ /ˈɹiːltaɪm/ /ˈɹiːəl ˈtaɪm/ | /ˈɹiːəltaɪm/ /ˈɹiːltaɪm/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | about once in every 1 million words |
Sources: real time and realtime in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of real time and realtime
real time
- 1
Communicated as the events being responded to occur; communicated or proceeding without much delay
- 2
The duration required by a computer system to complete a particular task
- 3
Of a system: that responds to events or signals within a predictable time after their occurrence; specifically in which the response time must be within the maximum allowed, but is typically…
- 4
The time during which an event or process occurs (and during which, without much delay, it is responded to, reacted to, etc)
- 5
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see real, time
realtime
- 1
Alternative form of real-time
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, real time or realtime?
real time is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; realtime about once in every 1 million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search real time vs realtime?
“real time vs realtime” is searched about 390 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“realtime vs real time”, “real time or realtime”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.