realia
/ɹeɪˈɑːlɪə/noun
realia is a noun meaning “Objects from real life or from the real world, as opposed to theoretical constructs or fabricated examples” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-E-A-L-I-A, and it appears about once in every 48 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does realia mean?
noun
- 1
Objects from real life or from the real world, as opposed to theoretical constructs or fabricated examples.
- 2
Words and expressions for culture-specific material elements.
- 3
Physical objects in a library collection that do not fit into traditional categories of media, whose media are the objects themselves, as opposed to their informational content, such as artifacts, tools, memorabilia, and naturally-occurring specimens.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce realia?
- UK /ɹeɪˈɑːlɪə/
- UK /ɹiːˈeɪlɪə/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-realia.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
How common is realia?
Realia appears about once in every 48 million words in written English, the 214,628th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Realia in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense real objects or facts:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | realia |
| Spanish | realia |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does realia come from?
From Late Latin realia, neuter plural of realis (“real”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).