1 used in speaking to emphasize a fact or a comment, or that sth is really true:
Well, what did she actually say? * It's not actually raining at the moment. * That's the only reason I'm actually going. * There are lots of people there who can actually help you. * I didn't want to say anything without actually reading the letter first.
2 used to show a contrast between what is true and what sb believes, and to show surprise about this contrast:
It was actually quite fun after all. * The food was not actually all that expensive. * Our turnover actually increased last year.
3 used to correct sb in a polite way:
We're not American, actually. We're Canadian. * Actually, it would be much more sensible to do it later. * They're not married, actually.
4 used to get sb's attention, to introduce a new topic or to say sth that sb may not like, in a polite way:
Actually, I'll be a bit late home. * Actually, I'm busy at the moment-can I call you back? -< ACTUAL
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for actually is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is actually a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, actually is tagged as adverb.
Does actually appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — actually appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
