actualac‧tu‧al /ˈæktʃuəl/ ●●● S1 W2 adjective [only before noun] 
I’m not joking. Those were his actual words. I know Germany won, but I can’t tell you the actual score. Interest is only charged on the actual amount borrowed. In actual fact (=really), there is little evidence to support the allegations. ► Do not use actual to mean ‘at the present time’. Use current or present: the current (NOT actual) economic policy2the actual something used to introduce the most important part of an event or activity: The programme starts at 8.00 but the actual film doesn’t start until 8.30.
WORD ORIGINactual
Origin:
1300-1400 Old French actuel, from Late Latin actualis, from Latin actus; ➔ ACT1EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Although buses are supposed to run every fifteen minutes, the actual waiting time can be up to an hour.
- How does the actual cost compare with the budget?
- It's a true story, based on actual events.
- The actual amount of water needed by the crop depends on the weather conditions.
- The party took place three days before Daniel's actual birthday.
- But this version involved an actual family everybody knows right here in town.
- Headroom isn't such a problem, though, and actual rear seat comfort is very good.
- However, the actual and potential role of the state requires consideration in different terms.
- It is an analysis of the actual communications practices in the global system in terms of traffic.
- Plus you receive the actual text and not a photocopy, or an actual image file and not a scan.
Longman Language Activatorwhen things or people really exist
used to describe people or things that really exist and have not been imagined: · You can dress up either as a fictional character or a real person.very real: · His problems are very real. I don't think you should laugh at him.· There was a very real danger of being robbed during the night.
real, especially as compared with what is intended, believed, or what is usually expected: · How does the actual cost compare with the budget?· Although buses are supposed to run every fifteen minutes, the actual waiting time can be up to an hour.· The actual amount of water needed by the crop depends on the weather conditions.
the true value, nature, importance etc of something is its real value etc rather than what seems at first to be correct: · It is difficult to measure the true value of these amenities to the local community.· The true significance of the General's offer has yet to be established.
informal a real live person or animal is one that is actually alive and real: · Seeing real live animals in a zoo is much more exciting that just watching them on television.· I've never met a real live movie star before!
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY In actual fact (=really), there is little evidence to support the allegations.COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
In actual fact (=really), there is little evidence to support the allegations.· Poaching now threatens the animal's actual existence.
· Rescue workers still do not know the true extent of the disaster.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSNOUN· Kent also seems to have been the major importer of garnet, although the actual amount that survives has not been quantified.· The actual amount of data going over the phone line is quite small.· Allowances and Deductions Screens Codified details, start date and actual amounts are entered on to the screen.· The actual amount disbursed under the scheme in the two years for which it ran was £17 million, not £24 million.· National income is the value of the actual amount produced and so is necessarily equal to the national product and expenditure.· The actual amount you pay depends on the type of account you have.
· This observation did appear to conform with the actual behaviour of money wages in the interwar period, particularly in Britain.· An approximation we make about the actual behaviour enables us to model this behaviour in a dynamic framework without complicating the estimation.· The type description considers language as abstract knowledge, the token description as actual behaviour.· These, in their turn, were seen as indispensable for the explanation of actual behaviour.· But they did not yet feel able to go through with changes in their actual behaviour.· Beyond it we must look at actual behaviour to assess the impact of higher taxes on incentives.· In order for parents to express these worries, however, the child must at some time have produced actual behaviour.· For this reason, econometric studies have been used to explore actual behaviour.
· While connection and rental fees for non-business users are lower, the actual cost of the phone itself could be significantly greater.· Based on actual costs, Norris figured the real costs were $ 258 per machine.· Second, the actual cost, both in time and money, can be very much less than might at first be anticipated.· How does the actual cost compare with the planned cost for meeting the objective?· Officials make it clear that the actual cost is not yet known.· But whatever the actual cost of environmental regulation may be, it is large and commands attention.· Therefore, it is said, one is looking for the actual cost of providing that benefit for the employee.· The idea was to charge for the actual cost of delivering the water, since pumping uphill is expensive.
· The contractor is paid for the actual costs he incurs plus a previously agreed lump sum for his overheads and profit.· Based on actual costs, Norris figured the real costs were $ 258 per machine.· Differences between the actual costs and cost profile and the budget are called variances.· But the company believes, he added, that fees based primarily on actual costs will attract new customers.· In comparing actual costs with standard costs management should first consider the economy of operations.· Reconciliation of the actual costs and the budget should be done regularly throughout the relevant budget period.· Comparing these subjective judgements with actual costs might suggest that people are wrong about, for example check trading being cheap.
· The decision to continue collaboration after 1918 can only be understood through the actual events of that year.· The captured instant often takes on meanings far more portentous than the actual event.· Since their interest in the past was primarily moralistic, precise knowledge of actual events and when they happened was not required.· Reliable eyewitness reports of actual events, when embedded in such a list, suffered a serious erosion of credibility.· In miming aspects of the events, signer 2 also used inappropriate mime which only partly visually represented the actual event.· Relieved yet confused, I tried to reconstruct the actual event.· This is not surprising, if both reflect memories of an actual event in the same general area.· But, like the Super Bowl itself, expectations for these Web sites usually surpass the actual event.
· The incidents related in her story, however, are drawn from actual experiences of visually handicapped pupils.· Any actual experience of love could enter into such a sys-tem only as a harbinger of disaster.· Yet the actual experience was surprisingly different.· Schools, polytechnics and universities all have magazines and newspapers on which you may gain actual experience while still a student.· Yet the actual experience of bombing was sharply differentiated.· Inevitably, the actual experience is far removed from the dream.
· In actual fact, what the monarchy does do is to reinforce Britain's position in the world as an outmoded Ruritania.· In actual fact, we do know now a great deal more than when the numbers game began.· Most proposals are, in actual fact, generated internally within departments.· In actual fact, membershiP Patterns differ from one country to the next.· In actual fact the two fish are not that alike.· The methodology chapter must reflect the actual facts of the research experience.· In actual fact, coil-tap not withstanding, the sounds produced are a sort of sit-on-the-fence compromise between the two.· In actual fact, the premier was growing more and more disenchanted with the private power lobby.
· Because not all catches were reported, the actual numbers caught were probably even higher.· The value of the rehabilitation centres extends far beyond the actual numbers released.· Among wild creatures rarity is a relative condition, not always determined on the basis of actual numbers.· But the actual number of police officers employed at 15 October 1991 was 1,713, not 1,820.· For example, what do we mean by the actual number 3?· If the actual number of entry-versions exceeds the design assumption by more than 25%, the system will be unmanageable.· The actual numbers of surviving big mammals are astoundingly small-grizzly bears in the lower forty-eight states can be counted in the hundreds.
· The preparation of a budget provides a measure against which actual performance can be monitored.· However, we can not predict people's actual performance from their level of experience.· Abilities indicate potential rather than actual performance.· A contractor could use the actual performance when not working under claim conditions to establish what should have been foreseeable.· Thus the measure of damages is the difference between the contract price and the market price on the date for actual performance.· I think everyone needs the director to be vitally interested in the work well beyond the first week of actual performance.
· In particular the expectations of research often do not match the actual practice of their supervisors.· In actual practice they flew at one or less.· Ideas about baby feeding and weaning are constantly changing and actual practice can have a profound effect on child health.· In actual practice, audiences, interests and markets overlap quite considerably.· However, lip service is often paid to the desirability of delegation without accompanying it by actual practice.· This is why timber develops a good fraction of its theoretical modulus in actual practice.· But just how does this work in actual practice?· Moreover, an explicit claim to multiple points of view tells us nothing about the actual practice of using them.
· If this is to be your approach see pages 87-92 for the actual process of post-production editing.· The actual process of revision will be a group or team effort and involve everyone.· Hence the shift in emphasis from the finished work to the actual process of creation of the Action painters and others.· The actual process, however, is that a lobby or the administration proposes legislation.· This idea potentially oversimplifies the actual process of offering vulnerable people choices which might result in their leading fuller lives.· The actual process of collecting was very complicated.· Every bit, that is, except the actual process of setting-up.· Meanings are also created, developed, modified and changed within the actual process of interaction.
· Changing metaphor, the equilibrium unemployment rate is seen to be shackled to the actual rate.· The comparison of the effective exchange rate and actual rates clearly demonstrates the value and necessity for a weighted exchange rate.· The annualized inflation rate for 1989 was 47.5 percent, but the actual rate at end-year was 44 percent.· The analysis applies in reverse if the actual rate of interest is thought to be abnormally low.
· The actual results of the Group may differ materially from those illustrated.· Again, the methods or source is as important as the actual results making one inexorably tied to the other.· In such circumstances actual results influence judgments of responsibility and culpability even though the agent did not contemplate the result which occurred.· Power becomes the intervening variable between desired outcomes and actual results.· After all, the Literary Digest Poll for the 1932 election came within a tiny margin of the actual result.· While the intention was to stimulate industrial growth by freeing the market, the actual result was vastly different.· Also shown are the actual results for the full year 1992.· Unlike the pre-election polls, Gallup's findings on how people had cast their ballots were very close to the actual result.
· He also said the actual size of the store had not yet been determined.· On top of that, a super-levy of up to 3% - depending on the actual size of the harvest - would have to be imposed.· The whole sheet would then be photographed at actual size and the resulting image used to make a plate.· The Easton Press Books shown smaller than actual size.· It often depends on the actual size of the specimens selected as sub-adults are often more agreeable than fully grown ones.· In most cases you can choose whether to print the pattern at actual size or scaled to a percentage of actual size.
· Availability of resources and their actual use seem frequently to bear little relationship to each other.· They figured that most personal computers are not in actual use most of the time they are turned on!· Furthermore, it is said, a defensive strategy based on such weapons effectively rules out the actual use of nuclear weapons.· Can you imagine advanced scientific methods divorced from the policy and ethics of their actual use?· Although a hot-wire anemometer is simple in principle, its actual use is a matter of some complexity.· But police believe these figures disguise actual use.· Classroom activities here would prepare the learners to recognize the relevant co-occurrences and correlations as they occur in actual use.· The likelihood is that such spare syntactic structures appear very infrequently as independent forms in actual use.
· The actual value of delta H varies from species to species.· The customer has told you that he wants £3000 for the car - the actual value at 57,000 miles is half that.· Therefore it's impossible to estimate the actual value of the deal.
· The words printed are not always the actual words spoken or written to us.· Remember to pay ongoing attention to the intonation, and regard it as of equal importance to get right as the actual words.· Nor would I have taken that any more seriously than I took his actual words.· There is an evaluation of the Flesch Index, but mainly the analyses stress actual word usage rather than sentence construction perse.· Allowing for the actual word being within ±1 of this figure, we have a measure of approximate word length.· She picks up tones and drifts rather than actual words.· Another kind of pattern mask is a word mask, in which the backward-masking stimulus is itself an actual word.· May I check with the Minister his actual words, which I have in front of me?
· Most of the actual work of book provision is operated on an area basis - in common with other functions of the library service.· The corporations are getting exceedingly rich, but manage to kiss off those who do the actual work for them.· However in many branches active members who do actual work, not just attending committee meetings are few.· I help you with the good taste, and then I do the actual work.· The constant should be adjusted to reflect fairly the nature of the actual work involved.· They learned from their experiments that performing the actual work took in total only 90 minutes.· Charles found that, as ever, making a film involved much more hanging around than actual work.· However, they should not be seen as paragons of efficiency in getting the actual work done.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRYPHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
1used to emphasize that something is real or exact: - The cost is set to go up, but the actual amount is unknown.
- Development time is, in fact, he says, cut from years to months.
- For that very denial had, in fact, given me far more.
- He did not in fact inherit the title until 1705, but a love of hunting he certainly did.
- I never did that in fact ... I went into filming, straight away.
- In other respects they are rather mysterious - more so in fact than seems to have been widely realized.
- Miss Ashley had in fact, except as regards changing her birth certificate, overcome all these obstacles to acceptance.
- The result was a wonderful success for Wren, for the garden planners and for Carteron himself-a triumph, in fact.
- When the smell was pure oak, I remembered childhood woods; in fact one particular place in one particular wood.
I’m not joking. Those were his actual words. I know Germany won, but I can’t tell you the actual score. Interest is only charged on the actual amount borrowed. In actual fact (=really), there is little evidence to support the allegations. ► Do not use actual to mean ‘at the present time’. Use current or present: the current (NOT actual) economic policy2the actual something used to introduce the most important part of an event or activity: The programme starts at 8.00 but the actual film doesn’t start until 8.30.