the harsh/grim/stark reality (=conditions that are really very bad)
We want to protect our children from the harsh reality of our violent world.
political/social/economic realities
He's ignoring political realities.
verbs
face reality (=accept it)
It's painful, but you have to face reality.
confront a reality (=consider or deal with it)
They had to confront some unpleasant realities about themselves.
ignore a reality
They are ignoring the reality of Arab politics.
wake up to reality (=realize what is happening or real)
Well, they need to wake up to reality.
lose touch with reality (=no longer know about ordinary things or what is possible)
If all you have is the show-business world, you kind of lose touch with reality.
escape from reality
The programmes help viewers escape from reality.
bring somebody back to reality (=make them realize what is happening around them or true)
She was brought back to reality by the pain in her ankle.
become a reality (=really happen, after being hoped for, feared, etc by someone)
Last June, her longed-for baby finally became a reality.
reflect reality (=match or show what is really happening or true)
Do these novels accurately reflect contemporary reality?
bear no relation to reality (=not match what is really happening or true)
His vision of European politics bears no relation to reality.
be divorced from reality (=not connected in any way to what is really happening)
His ideas are completely divorced from reality.
phrases
a dose of reality (=an experience of what things are really like)
I got my first dose of reality when I reported to work at my new job.
somebody's grasp of reality (=their understanding of reality)
They portrayed her as a sick woman with only a tenuous grasp of reality.
Examples from the Corpus
reality• Now, as the barriers come down between East and West, that prospect will become a reality.• Small children often can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality.• There are realities that I can not change.• As it turned out, they had all the problems one would reasonably expect, given their experientialreality.• Delane turned to drugs as an escape from reality.• But I have suggested that these three viewpointsexpress different ways of knowing and relating to one complex multi-layered reality.• As a result, a heavydose of reality has descended on the Buchanan campaign.• But it refers to a religiousreality that is so basic and so universal its equivalent has been found almost everywhere.• But the reality of biology is much more complicated.
escape from reality• There are people out there who really do see him as the pioneer of a computer-generated escape from reality.• But the issue is more complex than the mereescape from reality into fantasy.