Not made up

The answer

REAL

4 letters. See every clue for this answer on the REAL answer page.

Used 23 times across 15 distinct years; most recently in 2026; first recorded in 2002. It appears in 8 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.

Other answers for this clue

The same clue has also been answered these ways in the xd corpus. Answers inside this collection link to their own answer page.

• TRUE (9 uses in xd)
• ACTUAL (3 uses in xd)
• FACTUAL (2 uses in xd)

Other clues for REAL

Every other clue in this collection answered by REAL, most used first.

• Genuine - used 286 times, most recently in 2026
• Authentic - used 284 times, most recently in 2026
• Bona fide - used 110 times, most recently in 2026
• Actual - used 106 times, most recently in 2026
• Honest-to-goodness - used 71 times, most recently in 2026
• Not imaginary - used 58 times, most recently in 2026
• True-to-life - used 54 times, most recently in 2026
• Concrete - used 47 times, most recently in 2024
• Not fake - used 47 times, most recently in 2026
• Tangible - used 40 times, most recently in 2026
• Sincere - used 39 times, most recently in 2026
• Unfeigned - used 28 times, most recently in 2021
• "Get ___!" - used 25 times, most recently in 2020
• Down-to-earth - used 24 times, most recently in 2024
• Not imagined - used 24 times, most recently in 2025

Related clues

Clues in this collection of the same answer length that share a word with this clue, or match its answer pattern when no word is shared. Most used first.

• Not fooled by - ONTO, used 444 times
• Not as much - LESS, used 378 times
• If not - ELSE, used 199 times
• Not "fer" - AGIN, used 181 times
• Not pro - ANTI, used 172 times
• Not so much - LESS, used 171 times

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