actual
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈækʃuəl/
ipa: /ˈækʃəl/
ipa: /ˈæktʃuəl/
ipa: /ˈæktʃəl/
note: without the yod-coalescence
ipa: /ˈæktjʊəl/
note: without the yod-coalescence
ipa: /ˈæktjəl/
ipa: /ˈæt͡ʃəl/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈaktʃʊwəl/
rhymes: -æktʃuəl
rhymes: -æktʃəl
rhymes: -ækʃuəl
rhymes: -ækʃəl
Etymology: From Middle English actual, actuel (“active”), from Anglo-Norman actuel, actual, and its source Late Latin actuālis (“active, practical”), from Latin actus (“act, action, performance”), from agere (“to do; to act”) + -alis (“-al”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti, from the root *h₂eǵ-.
Senses: examples: text: In this slumbry agitation, besides her walking, and other actuall performances, what (at any time) haue you heard her say?
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
text: Let your holy and pious intention be actual; that is […] by a special prayer or action, […] given to God.
ref: 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living:
text: Apparently, the holy Doctor was referring to actual, rather than original, sin; yet the basis of his argument for Mary's holiness, the divine maternity, would logically lead to the conclusion that she was free from original sin also.
ref: 1946, The American Ecclesiastical Review, volume 114:
topics: lifestyle
religion
theology
glosses: relating to a person's acts or deeds; active, practical
examples: text: the actual cost of goods; the actual case under discussion
text: The actual government expenses dramatically exceed the budget.
text: The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
text: They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies.
ref: 2013 June 7, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 18:
synonyms: real
antonyms: potential
possible
virtual
speculative
conceivable
theoretical
nominal
hypothetical
estimated
glosses: Existing in reality, not just potentially; really acted or acting; occurring in fact.
examples: text: If this be your actual situation, compared to the situation to which you were called, as it were by the voice of God and man, I cannot find it in my heart to congratulate you on the choice you have made, or the success which has attended your endeavours.
ref: 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the revolution in France:
text: To my actual feelings it seems incredible that I could ever believe that I believed in Transubstantiation!
ref: c. 1793, Edward Gibbon, Memoirs of My Life, Penguin, published 1990, page 85:
synonyms: present
coordinate_terms: future
past
glosses: in action at the time being; now existing; current.
examples: text: [H]ow the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure. Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness.
ref: 2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
glosses: Used as intensifier to emphasise a following noun; exact, specific, very.
Synonyms: positive
Derived terms: actual bodily harm
actual cash value
actual cost
actual flying time
actualism
actualist
actualistic
actuality
actualization
actualize
actually
actual malice
actualness
actual neurosis
actual occasions
actual parameter
actual sin
nonactual
unactual
Related terms: activity
actor
actuary