actual
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
actual
- /ˈækʃuəl/
- /ˈækʃəl/
- /ˈæktʃuəl/
- /ˈæktʃəl/
- /ˈæktjʊəl/
- /ˈæktjəl/
- /ˈæt͡ʃəl/ colloquial
Rhymes with -æktʃuəl, -æktʃəl, -ækʃuəl, -ækʃəl
Where it comes from
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.
adjective
- 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?
- Existing in reality, not just potentially; really acted or acting; occurring in fact. the actual cost of goods; the actual case under discussion
- 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.
- 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.
Similar: positive
noun 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.
