well actually
well actually noun: an unwarranted correction, often given in a condescending manner.
Noun
well actually (plural well actuallies)
- An unwarranted correction, often given in a condescending manner.
- The well-actually crowd wants as much as everyone else to participate in the conversation. They want to be loved. But instead of rolling with the punches and participating in a brainstorm of ideas and exploding humor, they contribute interruptions, facts and details that merely produce stop energy...2011 February 7, Miguel de Icaza, “Well, Actually”, in tirania.org
- A well-actually happens when someone says something that's almost - but not entirely - correct, and you say, "well, actually…" and then give a minor correction. This is especially annoying when the correction has no bearing on the actual conversation. This doesn't mean the Recurse Center isn't...2015 March 25, “The Recurse Center User's Manual”, in Recurse Center, archived from the original on 25 Mar 2015
Examples of well actually in a sentence
- While some people might’ve taken this statement as a diss aimed at the “Bad Blood” singer, Yeezy shared his “well actually” clarification, and said Swift gave him the green light to state that.2016 February 12, “Kanye West Clarifies That “Famous” Taylor Swift Lyric, Says She Was Cool With It”, in VIBE.com:
- Altho in this one group there is a “well actually” person.2019 November 2, “How do you deal with "well, actually" people?”, in Reddit.com:
- We’ve been able to have conversations and eat lunch and do big, girthy shits without Will barging in and well actually-ing us or one of you calling us gay for speaking in complete sentences!2021, The Sisters of Dorley, page 1428:
Forms of well actually
| plural | well actuallies |
|---|---|
| alternative form | um, actually |
| alternative form | erm, actually |
Origin of well actually
From the cliché phrase Well, actually, used to belittle a coherent argument by implying it can be destroyed in a single sentence.
Questions about well actually
- What does well actually mean?
- Well actually means an unwarranted correction, often given in a condescending manner.
- How do you use well actually in a sentence?
- While some people might’ve taken this statement as a diss aimed at the “Bad Blood” singer, Yeezy shared his “well actually” clarification, and said Swift gave him the green light to state that.
- What part of speech is well actually?
- Well actually is a noun.
- What is the plural of well actually?
- The plural of well actually is well actuallies.
Words near well actually in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: well actually (page history and authors). 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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “well actually.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/well_actually. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.