Adjacent Words

Actual definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ACT'UAL, a.
1. Real or effective, or that exists truly and absolutely; as, actual heat, opposed to that, which is virtual or potential; actual cautery, or the burning by a red-hot iron, opposed to a cautery or caustic application, that may produce the same effect upon the body by a different process.
2. Existing in act; real; in opposition to speculative, or existing in theory only; as an actual crime.
3. In theology, actual sin is that which is committed by a person himself, opposed to original sin, or the corruption of nature supposed to be communicated from Adam.
4. That includes action.
Besides her walking and other actual performances. [Hardly legitimate.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: presently existing in fact and not merely potential or possible; "the predicted temperature and the actual temperature were markedly different"; "actual and imagined conditions" [syn: actual, existent] [ant: possible, potential]
2: taking place in reality; not pretended or imitated; "we saw the actual wedding on television"; "filmed the actual beating"
3: being or reflecting the essential or genuine character of something; "her actual motive"; "a literal solitude like a desert"- G.K.Chesterton; "a genuine dilemma" [syn: actual, genuine, literal, real]
4: existing in act or fact; "rocks and trees...the actual world"; "actual heroism"; "the actual things that produced the emotion you experienced" [syn: actual, factual]
5: being or existing at the present moment; "the ship's actual position is 22 miles due south of Key West"

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English actuel, from Late Latin actualis, from Latin actus act Date: 14th century 1. obsolete active 2. a. existing in act and not merely potentially b. existing in fact or reality <actual and imagined conditions> c. not false or apparent <actual costs> 3. existing or occurring at the time ; current <caught in the actual commission of a crime>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. (usu. attrib.) 1 existing in fact; real (often as distinct from ideal). 2 existing now; current. Usage: Redundant use, as in tell me the actual facts, is disp., but common. Derivatives: actualize v.tr. (also -ise). actualization n. Etymology: ME f. OF actuel f. LL actualis f. agere ACT

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Actual Ac"tu*al (#; 135), a. [OE. actuel, F. actuel, L. actualis, fr. agere to do, act.] 1. Involving or comprising action; active. [Obs.] Her walking and other actual performances. --Shak. Let your holy and pious intention be actual; that is . . . by a special prayer or action, . . . given to God. --Jer. Taylor. 2. Existing in act or reality; really acted or acting; in fact; real; -- opposed to potential, possible, virtual, speculative, conceivable, theoretical, or nominal; as, the actual cost of goods; the actual case under discussion. 3. In action at the time being; now exiting; present; as the actual situation of the country. Actual cautery. See under Cautery. Actual sin (Theol.), that kind of sin which is done by ourselves in contradistinction to ``original sin.'' Syn: Real; genuine; positive; certain. See Real.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Actual Ac"tu*al, n. (Finance) Something actually received; real, as distinct from estimated, receipts. [Cant] The accounts of revenues supplied . . . were not real receipts: not, in financial language, ``actuals,'' but only Egyptian budget estimates. --Fortnightly Review.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. You use actual to emphasize that you are referring to something real or genuine. The segments are filmed using either local actors or the actual people involved... Officials admit the actual number of AIDS victims is much higher than statistics reflect. = real ADJ: ADJ n [emphasis] 2. You use actual to contrast the important aspect of something with a less important aspect. She had compiled pages of notes, but she had not yet gotten down to doing the actual writing... in actual fact: see fact ADJ: ADJ n [emphasis]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Real, veritable, true, substantial, objective, determinate, decided, categorical, positive, absolute, certain, genuine, very, not merely imagined, not imaginary, not merely supposed or fancied, not fictitious, that exists in deed and in truth, de jure as well as de facto, ideal (in pregnant sense), really ideal, ideally real, bona fide, thorough, thoroughgoing, in entelechy, entelechic. 2. Present, now existing, now in being, sensibly real, sensible, perceptible, de facto, in hard fact, at this moment, here and now, just this present, un-ideal, in act, in actu, in process, energizing, energic, in energy.

Moby Thesaurus

absolute, admitting no question, as is, ascertained, attested, authentic, authenticated, being, bona fide, categorically true, certain, certified, commonplace, concrete, confirmable, confirmed, contemporaneous, contemporary, corroborated, current, de facto, demonstrable, demonstratable, demonstrated, determined, documentary, effectual, established, everyday, existent, existing, extant, factual, for real, fresh, genuine, hard, historical, honest-to-God, immanent, immediate, inappealable, incontestable, incontrovertible, indisputable, indubitable, instant, irrefragable, irrefutable, latest, legitimate, manifest, material, modern, new, not in error, objective, objectively true, ordinary, phenomenal, physical, positive, present, present-age, present-day, present-time, provable, proved, real, realistic, realized, routine, running, self-evident, solid, substantial, substantiated, sure-enough, tangible, testable, that be, that is, topical, true, true as gospel, true to life, truthful, unanswerable, unconfutable, unconfuted, undeniable, undenied, undoubted, unerroneous, unfallacious, unfalse, unimpeachable, unmistaken, unquestionable, unrefutable, unrefuted, up-to-date, up-to-the-minute, usual, validated, veracious, veridical, verifiable, verified, veritable