{"id":8946,"date":"2022-10-07T17:54:16","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T17:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/?p=8946"},"modified":"2022-10-07T17:56:05","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T17:56:05","slug":"irl-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/irl-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"IRL \u2013 Meaning, Origin and Usage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Did you just see a podcast advertise itself as \u2018<strong><em>IRL<\/em><\/strong>\u2019? This post unpacks the meaning and origin of this acronym.<\/p>\n<h2>Meaning<\/h2>\n<p>The acronym <em>\u2018IRL\u2019<\/em> <u>stands for<\/u> <em>\u2018In Real Life.\u2019<\/em> It\u2019s a tech term and <u>frequently appears in conversations describing tech products and systems<\/u>. People in the tech industry will use \u2018IRL\u2019 to describe events occurring in the real world, not cyberspace.<\/p>\n<p>People will use <em>\u2018IRL\u2019 <\/em>in <u>chats and on message boards<\/u> when <u>talking about things that happen to them in real life<\/u>, also known as the \u2018<em>meat space<\/em>.\u2019 If someone texts you something unbelievable and ends it with <em>\u2018IRL,<\/em>\u2019 it means that <u>they\u2019re telling you a version of real events that happened to them.<\/u><\/p>\n<p><em>\u2018IRL\u2019<\/em> is also a <u>popular meme<\/u>, with users comparing images of tech or fantasy landscapes or products to real life. Many <u>podcasters use the term<\/u> to describe how their channel discusses events that happen in the real world.<\/p>\n<h2>Example Usage<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cI watched Tim Pools IRL podcast last night. That guy makes some decent points, but he\u2019s certainly turning into a far-right nut job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was standing there IRL, and this person just walks up to me and spits in my face. I was so shocked I didn\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s how we do this IRL, buddy. If you want things done right, you have to do them yourself. Don\u2019t rely on anyone to deliver for you; it\u2019s all on you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is happening, IRL. I can\u2019t believe we would all comply with this so easily. It seems that society is nothing more than a flock of sheep doing the bidding of their masters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIRL, we were all there on time and ready for action, but no one showed up. We stayed there for the next four hours, and not a soul walked into the building. Do we have the right date?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen something like that happens IRL, it\u2019s best to call the police. You don\u2019t know what the person is thinking or what they might do if they feel they have to escape.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we look at how the system operates \u2018IRL,\u2019 we find that it\u2019s achieving 99.9% of what the protocol is designed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you talking about the virtual world or IRL? This conversation is getting confusing, and I\u2019m not sure what point you\u2019re trying to make here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8948\" src=\"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/IRL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"156\" height=\"164\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8949\" src=\"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/IRL2-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/IRL2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/IRL2.jpg 377w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Origin<\/h2>\n<p>Language experts cannot pinpoint when \u2018IRL\u2019 entered the English lexicon or who coined its use. However, some experts believe the term comes from the early 2000s and the rise of gaming culture and text communications.<\/p>\n<p>The earliest entry into the Urban Dictionary was in 2003, which was in the days before smartphones arrived on the market. As a result, people would use abbreviations and acronyms for commonly used phrases to prevent the hassle of typing out the entire meaning.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"IRL Meaning\" width=\"512\" height=\"288\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7nLQCtneFc4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Phrases Similar to IRL<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The real deal.<\/li>\n<li>In real time.<\/li>\n<li>Physical reality.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Phrases Opposite to IRL<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>VR (Virtual Reality).<\/li>\n<li>AR (Augmented Reality).<\/li>\n<li>The Matrix.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is the Correct Saying?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>IRL.<\/li>\n<li>In Real Life.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Ways People May Say IRL Incorrectly<\/h2>\n<p>The phrase \u2018IRL\u2019 has nothing to do with the country \u2018Ireland.\u2019 Some people may use the term to describe situations that happen to them online in the virtual world, but this is incorrect. If something happens to your IRL, it occurs in your physical reality.<\/p>\n<h2>Acceptable Ways to Phrase IRL<\/h2>\n<p>You can use the acronym \u2018IRL\u2019 to describe situations that happen \u2018in real life.\u2019 You\u2019ll use the term in online chats and message boards to describe things that happen in your life, not in the virtual world. Typically, gamers and other people terminally online use the term to differentiate between their time in the real world and that spent online.<\/p>\n<p>If something is \u2018IRL,\u2019 it means it occurs in your physical reality. You can use the phrase to describe anything from podcasts to occurrences like someone giving you a surprise. Typically, you\u2019ll use the acronym in text-based communications and the complete saying in verbal conversations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-2\">Did you just see a podcast advertise itself as \u2018IRL\u2019? This post unpacks the meaning and origin of this acronym. Meaning The acronym \u2018IRL\u2019 stands for \u2018In Real Life.\u2019 It\u2019s a tech term and frequently appears in conversations describing tech products and systems. People in the tech industry will use \u2018IRL\u2019 to describe events occurring [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8946"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8946"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8951,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8946\/revisions\/8951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}