Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use actual in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Actual means relating to a person's acts or deeds; active, practical. Example: “The actual government expenses dramatically exceed the budget.”

Examples of actual by meaning

adjectiveRelating to a person's acts or deeds; active, practical.

  • 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.1946, The American Ecclesiastical Review, volume 114

adjectiveExisting 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.
  • They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies.2013 June 7, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 18

adjectiveUsed as intensifier to emphasise a following noun; exact, specific, very.

  • 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

nounA radio callsign modifier that specifies the commanding officer of the unit or asset denoted by the remainder of the...

  • Bravo Six Actual, this is Charlie One. Come in, over.

More sentences with actual

  • The monthly financial statements show all the actual but only some of the accrued expenses.From the entry accrue
  • The child node then stores the actual data of the parent node.From the entry child
  • Actual perpetrators though they were, the criminals never admitted it in court.From the entry though
  • The actual geography of the murderous mind is still a mystery.From the entry geography
  • Actual possession of land gives a good title against a stranger having no title.From the entry stranger
  • The nominal voltage is 1.5 V, but the actual figure is usually higher.From the entry nominal
  • Anger is a natural response in humans to perceived or actual threat or provocation.From the entry perceived
  • This year's projections are above prior year actuals by five percent.From the entry actuals
  • Here are some actual figures to round out the basic report.From the entry round out
  • The actual at-risk population was limited to those directly exposed and could be quarantined or monitored.From the entry at-risk
  • Verifying and addressing actual threats is not paranoia.From the entry threat
  • The given pointer will reference the actual generated data.From the entry reference
  • This exercise is a simulation of actual battle conditions.From the entry simulation
  • Her smooth complexion and dark hair belie her actual age.From the entry belie
  • I’m getting more of a seared bite on the Impossible Whopper than I’m getting on the actual Whopper.From the entry seared
  • Because of the professor's venerability his opinion was often asked, but his actual attendance in committee meetings was not insisted upon.From the entry venerability
  • Lawful money is always a land asset and can only be issued by an actual land jurisdiction government — not a corporation.From the entry lawful
  • The Romans themselves believed Romulus had given them a 10-month lunar calendar, but modern scholars consider the actual original state of Roman menology uncertain.From the entry menology
  • "Bouba" and "Kiki" are sound-symbolic labels, not directly imitating any actual sound but nonetheless carrying strong intrinsic associations with roundness and pointiness, respectively.From the entry sound-symbolic
  • The actual reading of the text itself is accompanied by certain common paralexical and extratextual features. The paralexical features are the intonational contours and stress patterns given the oral reading.From the entry paralexical
  • Both are peer reviewed and written by actual experts in the field.2026 June 15, u/as-well, r/askphilosophy (Reddit post), archived from the original on 17 Jul 2026. From the entry sep
  • Eh, he's got a lot farther to fall to be an actual lolcow.2026 January 9, Eins_Nico, “Congrats Mr. & Mrs. Anus Jomha!”, in r/imisstheoldidubbbz (Reddit post), archived from the original on 01 Feb…. From the entry Dogtober 7th
  • That pessimism might be harder to fix than an actual downturn.2026 May 24, Annie Lowrey, “Americans Refuse to Be Happy”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic…. From the entry permacession
  • Some aspects of contemporary progressivism look less like actual progress and more like a step in reverse.2023 November 16, Pamela Paul, “Progressives Aren’t Liberal”, in The New York Times. From the entry progressivism
  • I was like "actual? low key bro no shot she said that, right?"2023 February 12, u/CmickG, “DR DISRESPECT - FANDUEL SUPERSTAR SHOWDOWN”, in Reddit, r/DrDisrespectLive, archived from the original on 27…. From the entry no shot
  • While in the actual legit sciences, you can run multiple experiments to generate a host of data.2023 October 2, Robin Wigglesworth, “Hallucinating machines”, in Financial Times, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived…. From the entry quantland
  • And in actual fact, we have proven that we are compatible with the standards of the alliance.2022 September 30, 3:10 from the start, in Ukraine makes NATO membership bid following Putin's annexation of four Ukrainian regions…. From the entry one another
  • The bubble represents logical inversion and is the actual NOT gate.2022 August 4, William Bahn, “Boolean Algebra Laws—Delving Into Boolean Identities”, in All About Circuits. From the entry not
  • I'm happy that all the big boys can do actual live shows again though.2022 June 29, u/CucumberHorse21, “Online Festivals and showcases were the funnest highlight of my Covid lockdown”, in Reddit, r/pcmusic. From the entry urlfest
  • The corresponding virus (now called rubella) has no relation to Germany, nor the actual measles virus.2021 May 12, Ashley Mayrianne Champagne, “Why Scientists Should Not Name Diseases Based On Location”, in American Society for Microbiology. From the entry liberty measles
  • Of the songs with actual vocals, it’s much more derivative than anything else they would do.2020 October 17, Nathaniel FitzGerald, “The Worst Debuts From Great Bands”, in A Year of Vinyl, archived from the original on 23 Mar 2023. From the entry worship
  • I had the idea of making our browser chrome match the actual hardware you were on.2020 January 4, Jimmy Grewal, quoting Maf Vosburgh, “Internet Explorer 5 for Mac: twentieth anniversary”, in Jimmy's Blog, archived from…. From the entry chrome
  • Even if we used CliffsNotes to "read" the actual books themselves (sorry, Mrs.2020 May 29, Taylor Andrews, “50 Literary Baby Names That All Book Lovers Will Love”, in Cosmopolitan, New York, N.Y.: Hearst…. From the entry presh
  • To be clear, there’s no reason to hate the actual Harambe.2019 December 31, AJ Willingham, “All the trends we loved and hated in the 2010s”, in CNN. From the entry rip

Meaning of actual

  1. adjective Relating to a person's acts or deeds; active, practical.
  2. adjective Existing in reality, not just potentially; really acted or acting; occurring in fact.
  3. adjective In action at the time being; now existing; current.

Full definition of actual

Questions about actual in a sentence

How do you use actual in a sentence?
Actual is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “The actual government expenses dramatically exceed the budget.”
What is a short sentence with actual?
“The actual government expenses dramatically exceed the budget.”
What does actual mean?
Actual means relating to a person's acts or deeds; active, practical.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: actual (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use actual in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/actual. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.