as in real
existing in fact and not merely as a possibility
the actual outcome of the election was quite different from what everybody had expected
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of actual
Much more could be said about the actual and pending policy initiatives of the new administration, but sufficient unto the week is the evil thereof.
—
Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 16 Feb. 2025
Dozens of record-low temperatures are possible in the central United States from Tuesday through Friday, with actual lows as cold as minus 30 degrees in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota.
>ABC News' Victoria Arancio and Josh Richardson contributed to this report.
—Daniel Amarante, ABC News, 16 Feb. 2025
Both young actors are superb, each zigzagging along that fine line between immature posturing and actual, exhilarating self-realization, evoking that transitional stage through which girls like them can often seem at least three ages at once.
—Guy Lodge, Variety, 14 Feb. 2025
But this is sort of a wild amount of actual power for someone unelected.
—Nathaniel Rakich, ABC News, 4 Feb. 2025
See all Example Sentences for actual 
Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 16 Feb. 2025
Dozens of record-low temperatures are possible in the central United States from Tuesday through Friday, with actual lows as cold as minus 30 degrees in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota.
>ABC News' Victoria Arancio and Josh Richardson contributed to this report.
—Daniel Amarante, ABC News, 16 Feb. 2025
Both young actors are superb, each zigzagging along that fine line between immature posturing and actual, exhilarating self-realization, evoking that transitional stage through which girls like them can often seem at least three ages at once.
—Guy Lodge, Variety, 14 Feb. 2025
But this is sort of a wild amount of actual power for someone unelected.
—Nathaniel Rakich, ABC News, 4 Feb. 2025
See all Example Sentences for actual
Recent Examples of Synonyms for actual
Adjective
-
This debauchery led to Fear being banned from SNL, which singer Lee Ving has always considered to be a real honor.—
Shannon Carlin,
TIME,
15 Feb. 2025
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Likewise, there will be many who won’t feel this is such a big deal given there’s no real suggestion that the amount of clostebol Sinner took would have given him much of a competitive advantage.—
Charlie Eccleshare,
The Athletic,
15 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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The Senate is also set to vote on whether to confirm the remaining Trump Cabinet picks, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary. fairness meter fairness meter Newsweek is committed to journalism that's factual and fair.—
Ewan Palmer,
Newsweek,
11 Feb. 2025
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The factual novella lacks the self-soothing aspects of the self-eulogizing fantasy, while telling the same tale, with Hemingway acting, by his frantic verbal participation, as its co-author, contributing to what is at once a parody and, in another way, the superior realization of his own book.—
Adam Gopnik,
The New Yorker,
10 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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For her first real estate purchase, the young owner of this compact, 300-square-foot apartment wanted all the amenities of a true home.—
Annabelle Dufraigne,
Architectural Digest,
8 Feb. 2025
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As the true scale of the fallout comes into view, African governments are wondering how to fill gaping holes left in vital services, like health care and education, that until recent weeks were funded by the United States.—
Declan Walsh,
New York Times,
8 Feb. 2025
Thesaurus Entries Near actual
Cite this Entry
“Actual.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/actual. Accessed 21 Feb. 2025.
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