photorealism: Meaning and Definition of

pho•to•re•al•ism

Pronunciation: (fō"tō-rē'u-liz"um), [key]
— n.
  1. a style of painting flourishing in the 1970s, esp. in the U.S., England, and France, and depicting commonplace scenes or ordinary people, with a meticulously detailed realism, flat images, and barely discernible brushwork that suggests and often is based on or incorporates an actual photograph.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.