a sect of school-philosophers formed in opposition to the nominalists.

Under the Realists are included the Scotists, Thomists, and all excepting the followers of Ocham. Their distinguishing tenet is, that universals are realities, and have an actual existence out of an idea or imagination; or, as they express it in the schools, a parte rei: whereas the nominalists contend, that they exist only in the mind, and are only ideas, or manners of conceiving things.