virtual definition, from Internet Connection, Inc.

[via the technical term virtual memory, prob.: from the term virtual image in optics]

1. Common alternative to logical; often used to refer to the artificial objects (like addressable virtual memory larger than physical memory) simulated by a computer system as a convenient way to manage access to shared resources.

2. Simulated; performing the functions of something that isn't really there. An imaginative child's doll may be a virtual playmate. Oppose real.