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[ adverb ] in actual fact
Synonyms Examples "to be nominally but not actually independent" "no one actually saw the shark" "large meteorites actually come from the asteroid belt" Used in print ([Anonymous,] "The Attack on Employee Services"...)Is an arbitrary retirement age of 65 actually costing your plant money ? (The Rev. John A. O'Brien, "Let's Take Birth Control...)Where it is not actually erupting , it rumbles and smolders in sullen resentment like a volcano , ready to explode at any moment . (Kenneth Allsop, The Bootleggers and Their Era...)On one of his 1921 ventures he was actually come_upon by a Detective_Sergeant_John_J._Ryan down on his knees with a tool embedded in a labour office safe in the Postal_Telegraph_Building ; the jury wanted better evidence than that and he was acquitted , at a cost of $ 30000 in bribes , it was estimated . (L. Don Leet and Florence J. Leet, editors, The World of...)The role of an earthquake in starting the destruction of whole cities is tremendously frightening , but fire may actually be the principal agent in a particular disaster . (David Boroff, "Jewish Teen-Age Culture"...)What is noteworthy about this large group of teen-agers is that , although their attitudes hardly differentiate them from their gentile counterparts , they actually lead their lives in a vast self_enclosed Jewish cosmos with relatively little contact with the non Jewish world . |
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[ adverb ] used to imply that one would expect the fact to be the opposite of that stated; surprisingly
Synonyms Examples "you may actually be doing the right thing by walking out" "she actually spoke Latin" "people who seem stand-offish are in reality often simply nervous" Used in print (John R. Sargent, "Where To Aim Your Planning for Bigger...)Have you actually checked_out ( not just mentally tested ) different selling approaches designed to counter the price competition problem ? (Philip Reaves, "Who Rules the Marriage Bed?"...)One wife , described by a New_York psychologist , so dominated her husband that she actually placed their sexual_relationship on a schedule , writing it down right between the weekly PTA meetings and the Thursday night neighborhood card parties . (Dell Shannon, The Ace of Spades....)The sweat broke_out on Mr._Skyros ' forehead as he realized he had been actually thinking - hoping - planning - perhaps - (Richard S. Prather, "The Bawdy Beautiful," Cavalier...)Actually , only two men know what the formula is , Blake and '' - He stopped and looked at Thor 's body . (T. C. McClary, "The Flooded Desert," Argosy,...)Actually , she had hated him before she ever saw him . |
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[ adverb ] at the present moment
Examples "the transmission screen shows the picture that is actually on the air" |
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[ adverb ] as a sentence modifier to add slight emphasis
Examples "actually, we all help clear up after a meal" "actually, I haven't seen the film" "I'm not all that surprised actually" "she hasn't proved to be too satisfactory, actually" |
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