Board Thread:The Panopticon/@comment-4028641-20140106233604/@comment-188432-20140112171212

No it doesn't mean that at all. Again, the distinction in DWU is between the word parallel and the world alternate. Alternate timelines create alternate realities. A timeline is a reality.

But also, and quite importantly, there are major characters in the DWU who don't make any sort of distinction between these things at all.

It's a bit like that old chestnut, "What year starts the 21st century?" You can find support in the DWU for both 2000 and 2001. Equally, there are times when DWU characters struggle to define a difference between "parallel" and "alternate", and there are times when not. But what you never find, I don't think, is a distinction between an alternate timeline and an alternate reality.