1. An early 20th-century movement in art and literature that tried to represent the subconscious mind by creating fantastic imagery by emphasizing imaginative powers including concepts that seem to contradict each other: Surrealism is used for the fine arts and written works in which unusual or impossible things are revealed as they happen.

One of the primary objectives of surrealism is to go beyond the ordinary processes of thinking and logic by existing in a mental world and in dreams.

2. Etymology: from French surréalisme; from Latin sur-, "above, beyond" + réalisme, "realism".

Created in 1917 by Guillaume Apollinaire, and then taken over by Andre Breton as the name of the movement he launched in 1924 with Manifeste de Surréalisme.

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