actual
/ˈækʃuəl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
colloquial/ˈæt͡ʃəl/
actual adjective: relating to a person's acts or deeds; active, practical.
Adjective
actual (not comparable)
- relating to a person's acts or deeds; active, practical
- In this slumbry agitation, besides her walking, and other actuall performances, what (at any time) haue you heard her say?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...
- Let your holy and pious intention be actual; that is […] by a special prayer or action, […] given to God.1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living
- Existing in reality, not just potentially; really acted or acting; occurring in fact.
- the actual cost of goods; the actual case under discussion
- The actual government expenses dramatically exceed the budget.
- Antonyms:
- potential, possible, virtual, speculative, conceivable, theoretical, nominal, hypothetical, estimated
- in action at the time being; now existing; current.
- 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.1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the revolution in France
- To my actual feelings it seems incredible that I could ever believe that I believed in Transubstantiation!c. 1793, Edward Gibbon, Memoirs of My Life, Penguin, published 1990, page 85
- Synonyms:
- present
- Used as intensifier to emphasise a following noun; exact, specific, very.
- [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.2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
Noun
actual (countable and uncountable, plural actuals)
- something actually received; real receipts, as distinct from estimated ones.
- a radio callsign modifier that specifies the commanding officer of the unit or asset denoted by the remainder of the callsign and not the officer's assistant or other designee.
- Bravo Six Actual, this is Charlie One. Come in, over.
- Reality, usually with the definite article.
- There was that desolate air about the chamber which is peculiar to an ill-furnished London room: cities need luxuries, were it only to conceal the actual.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A London Life”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 161
actual meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
actual in Hindi
- existing in act or reality, not just potentially
- वास्तविक vāstavik
- factual, real, not just apparent or even false
- सत्य satya
actual in Tamil
- உண்மையான, உண்மையாக உள்ள, நடைமுறையில் உள்ள
actual in Marathi
- वास्तविक
actual in Urdu
- actual, primitive
- اصلی aslī
More languagesFewer languages
- actual in Bengali
- আসল aśol, বাস্তব bastob, খোদ khōd
- actual in Malayalam
- യഥാർത്ഥ yathāṟttha
- actual in Kannada
- ನನಸು, ನನ್ನಿ, ಇರುವ
- actual in Nepali
- वास्तविक
- actual in Arabic
- حَقِيقِيّ ḥaqīqiyy, وَاقِعِيّ wāqiʕiyy, فِعْلِيّ fiʕliyy, حَاضِر ḥāḍir
- actual in Vietnamese
- thật, thật sự, thực tế, có thật
Examples of actual in a sentence
- The monthly financial statements show all the actual but only some of the accrued expenses.
- The child node then stores the actual data of the parent node.
- Actual perpetrators though they were, the criminals never admitted it in court.
Synonyms of actual
Antonyms
Forms of actual
| plural | actuals |
|---|
Origin of actual
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-. By surface analysis, act + -u- + -al.
Words formed from actual
Phrases with actual
Words that rhyme with actual
Questions about actual
- What does actual mean?
- Actual means relating to a person's acts or deeds; active, practical.
- What is actual in Hindi?
- Actual in Hindi is वास्तविक (vāstavik), सत्य (satya). See Actual meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is actual?
- Actual can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce actual?
- Actual is pronounced /ˈækʃuəl/.
Words near actual in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: actual (page history and authors); actual (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); actual (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); اصلی (Urdu) (page history and authors); യഥാർത്ഥ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); actual (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); actual (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-actual.ogg.
Cite this entry: “actual.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/actual. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.