Actual
['æktʃʊəl;-tjʊəl] or ['æktʃuəl]
Definition
(adj.) presently existing in fact and not merely potential or possible; 'the predicted temperature and the actual temperature were markedly different'; 'actual and imagined conditions' .
(adj.) being or existing at the present moment; 'the ship's actual position is 22 miles due south of Key West' .
(adj.) taking place in reality; not pretended or imitated; 'we saw the actual wedding on television'; 'filmed the actual beating' .
(adj.) existing in act or fact; 'rocks and trees...the actual world'; 'actual heroism'; 'the actual things that produced the emotion you experienced' .
(adj.) 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' .
Typed by Juan--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Involving or comprising action; active.
(a.) 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.
(a.) In action at the time being; now exiting; present; as the actual situation of the country.
(n.) Something actually received; real, as distinct from estimated, receipts.
Inputed by Elizabeth
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Real, veritable, true, substantial, determinate, decided, categorical, positive, absolute, certain, genuine, very, not ideal, not imagined, not imaginary, not supposed or fancied, not fictitious, that exists in fact, DE FACTO, BONA FIDE.[2]. Present, now existing, now in being.
Checked by Basil
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Developed, positive, unquestionable, demonstrable, certain, real, authentic
ANT:Potential, undeveloped, hypothetical, supposition, possible, virtual, theoretical,fabulous, fictitious, unreal
Typist: Lucinda
Definition
adj. real: existing in fact and now as opp. to an imaginary or past state of things.—v.t. Act′ualise to make actual: to realise in action.—n. Actual′ity.—adv. Act′ually.
Checker: Mattie
Examples
- His labors, however, were interrupt ed by the death of his assistant Flemming, and by his own illness, which proved fatal in 1846, a few months before the actual discovery of Neptune. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- They jostled, browbeat, and threatened one another, but they did not come to actual hostilities. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- There, within easy reach of the rubber trees, they set up their camp and the actual work of harvesting the rubber crop begins. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- For unions and trusts, sects, clubs and voluntary associations stand for actual needs. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- She had her queer, radiant, breathless manner, as if confused by the actual world, unreal to it, having a complete bright world of her self alone. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- For then you are dealing with living ideas: to search his text has its uses, but compared with the actual tradition of Marx it is the work of pedantry. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- My dear Maurice, you will be happier in the actual battle than in all the statecraft which leads to it. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- No ingenuity could make such a picture beautiful--to one's actual vision. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- And furthermore, that in practically every case the actual patented invention followed from one to a dozen or more gradually developing forms of the same idea. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- They would have been safer, though they had been taken in actual war against the Saracens, if they had once drank water with them. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- Every event was measured by the emotions of the mind, not by its actual existence, for existence it had none. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- In a tree we can distinguish this or that branch, though at the actual fork the two unite and blend together. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- The reader will excuse me if I conceal the date or any other fact by which he might trace the actual occurrence. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- But to suppose that the remedy lies in waiting for monographs from the research of the laboratory is to have lost a sense of the rhythm of actual affairs. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Rifled cannon were first employed in actual service in Louis Napoleon’s Italian campaign of 1859, and were first introduced in the United States service by General James in 1861. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
Editor: Miles