The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word ILLUSORY
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
I
L
L
U
S
O
R
Y
More clues leading to the result ILLUSORY
- Head off scorn in public, maintaining America is fake
- Difficult universal and timeless tale is deceptive
- Imagined America in attack showing no leadership
- Well, no, yours may be fancied
- Exotic lily ours? It’s not real
- Our silly cryptic, misleading
- Our silly novel is unreal
- Dicky takes time out from tale about United — it’s unreal!
- Your ills may turn out to be imaginary
- Our silly jigs can be unreal
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "It’s not real" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case it’s not real = illusory.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does ILLUSORY mean?
ILLUSORY adjective- Resulting from an illusion; deceptive, imaginary, unreal