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virtual

/ˈvɜːrtʃuəl//ˈvɜːtʃuəl/·adjective
existing in software or in effect rather than in physical form; almost something
Fig. 1 — I watch a man sit in a dim living room with a VR headset over his eyes, turning his head to look around.
01Definition

Virtual describes something that exists in effect or in software but not in solid, physical form: a virtual meeting, a virtual classroom, virtual reality. From the Latin virtus, 'power' or 'capacity,' it once meant being so in essence, and that older sense survives in 'virtually', meaning almost or in practice. The thread holds throughout — a virtual thing has all the function of the real one and none of its substance. A virtual model can behave exactly like the object it mirrors, yet there is nothing there to touch.

02In use
  • iThe pandemic pushed universities to move nearly every lecture into virtual classrooms.
  • iiIn a virtual simulation, engineers can load the bridge until it fails without risking a single robust beam.
  • iiiThe two designs are virtually identical apart from the colour.
03Collocations
  • virtual reality
  • a virtual meeting
  • virtually impossible
  • a virtual certainty
  • in virtual terms

Family virtually (adverb) · virtuality (noun) · virtualize (verb)

04Relations

=simulated, digital, online, effective, near-total

≠physical, tangible, actual

05Compared
PairThe difference
virtual vs tangiblereal, with substance you can touch → tangible; the function without the substance → virtual.
06TOEFL & IELTS

Two examiner-friendly senses. The tech sense ('virtual reality', 'virtual classroom') is everywhere in TOEFL/IELTS essays on education and technology. The adverb virtually (= almost / in practice — 'virtually impossible', 'virtually all students') is a precise hedging device for Writing. Don't read virtually as literally 'by computer'; context decides. Stress falls on the first syllable: VIR-tu-al.

07Asked
What does virtual mean?
Existing in effect or in software rather than in solid, physical form — a virtual meeting, a virtual classroom, virtual reality. From Latin virtus, 'power' or 'capacity', it once meant being something in essence, and the thread holds: a virtual thing has all the function of the real one and none of its substance. The scene above is exactly that — a whole city street reaching a man through a headset, drawn in light, with nothing in the room to touch.
Does virtual mean the same as online?
Overlapping but not identical. Online means connected to the internet; virtual means existing in software or simulation, whether networked or not. A virtual meeting happens to be online, but a virtual model of a car running on one offline machine is virtual without being online. Online describes the connection; virtual describes the substitute-for-the-physical nature of the thing itself.
What is the difference between 'virtual' and 'virtually'?
Parts of speech first, and the adjective and adverb pull in different directions. Virtual is the adjective (a virtual meeting). Virtually is the adverb, and it mostly means 'almost' or 'in practice' (virtually impossible, virtually all students) — a sense the tangible vs virtual page in the 'Compared' list above unpacks.
What does 'a virtual monopoly' or 'virtual certainty' mean?
Here virtual means 'almost complete, though not technically total' — a virtual monopoly controls a market so nearly that the exceptions do not matter; a virtual certainty is as good as certain. This is the older sense, being something in effect if not in strict fact. Note it is doing the opposite job from the tech sense: not 'simulated', but 'so nearly the real thing that the difference is negligible'.
How do you pronounce virtual?
VUR-choo-ul — three syllables, stress on the first, the -tu- softening to a 'choo' sound the way it does in 'actual' and 'mutual'. The common slip is a hard t ('VUR-tyoo-al') or flattening it to two syllables. The adverb virtually adds one more beat, VUR-choo-uh-lee, keeping the same front stress.