Virtual

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈvɜːt͡ʃʊəl/

Definitions

1. Existing or occurring primarily online or in a simulated digital environment rather than in physical reality
2. Existing or taking place in a digital realm rather than the physical world while referring to experiences that simulate real-life interactions online or through technology
3. Pertaining to something that is simulated or created by digital technology, often representing a real-world object or situation in an online environment

Etymology: Medieval Latin "virtualis" meant "having power to produce an effect," and that is still the core of the word. It descends from Latin "virtus," which originally meant manliness or male strength before it came to mean goodness and moral excellence. The sense of "potent" or "effective" survived into English, where "virtual" long meant something that is so in effect or essence without being so in form. That older meaning explains the modern one. An object that works as the real thing without physically being it fits the medieval idea of power exercised without the thing itself. The same logic produced the technical sense in mechanics, where a "virtual" velocity is a theoretical one that does not break a system's constraints, borrowed from French "virtuel." The modern computing and internet sense, a simulated environment that stands in for physical reality, grew out of this idea of effect without substance. Here the word stays within the same family of meanings that it has carried since the Middle Ages.

Synonyms: digital, simulated, imaginary

Antonyms: real, actual