virtual
adjective
vir·​tu·​al
| \ ˈvər-chə-wəl
, -chəl; ˈvərch-wəl\
, -chəl; ˈvərch-wəl\
Definition of virtual
1
: being such in essence or effect though not formally recognized or admitted
a virtual dictator
2
: being on or simulated on a computer or computer network
print or virtual books a virtual keyboard
: such as
a
: occurring or existing primarily online
virtual shopping
b
: of, relating to, or existing within a virtual reality
a virtual tour
3
: of, relating to, or using virtual memory
4
: of, relating to, or being a hypothetical particle whose existence is inferred from indirect evidence
virtual photons
— compare real sense 3
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Examples of virtual in a Sentence
The Web site provides a virtual tour of the stadium.
Recent Examples on the Web
The three-story, 80,000-square-foot building is shaped like a V and has space for roughly 2,000 students, The first floor of the building features a student lounge, a virtual library with computers, some classrooms and studio spaces. — Kristi Nix, Houston Chronicle, "University of Houston expands facilities, program offerings at Sugar Land and Katy campuses," 23 Aug. 2019 The study demonstrated an average cost savings of $2,745 per patient receiving virtual therapy. — Garnet Henderson, Scientific American, "Virtual Physical Therapy Could Help Fill Gaps in Treating All Too Real Pain," 21 Aug. 2019 Amazon and Google offer the ability to disable human vetting for their virtual assistants. — New York Times, "Hi, Alexa. How Do I Stop You From Listening In On Me?," 21 Aug. 2019 Further Reading Apple’s innovative virtual credit card is now available—but only to some people Apple Card is a MasterCard backed by Goldman Sachs, and it is primarily managed and used inside the Wallet app on iPhones running iOS 12.4 or later. — Samuel Axon, Ars Technica, "Apple Card is now available to all US iPhone owners, adds new cash-back rewards," 20 Aug. 2019 Game companies submit virtual guns to intellectual-property lawyers, either internally or at outside firms. — Sidney Fussell, The Atlantic, "Why It’s So Hard to Stop Marketing Guns in Video Games," 19 Aug. 2019 Ray tracing generally improves the realism of a virtual scene by rendering in finer detail the different ways light operates in a scene and interacts with other objects, resulting in more realistic shadows and reflections. — Nick Statt, The Verge, "Minecraft will get ray tracing for Nvidia RTX graphics cards," 19 Aug. 2019 The sheer number of marchers overwhelmed major roads and brought parts of downtown Hong Kong to a virtual standstill. — Time Staff, Time, "Hong Kong Protests Show Little Sign of Flagging as Large Crowds Rally for Democracy," 18 Aug. 2019 Then there is the matter of Bernadette herself, who spends her days randomly fixing up and tweaking elements of her tumbledown house and dictating memos to her virtual assistant, apparently named Manjula and located in India. — Alissa Wilkinson, Vox, "Where’d You Go, Bernadette," 16 Aug. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'virtual.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for virtual
virtual
adjective
English Language Learners Definition of virtual
: very close to being something without actually being it
: existing or occurring on computers or on the Internet
See the full definition for virtual in the English Language Learners Dictionary
virtual
adjective
vir·​tu·​al
| \ ˈvər-chə-wəl
\
\
Kids Definition of virtual
: being in effect but not in fact or name : close to but not quite something
Rain is a virtual certainty today.
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