Actually

English

Etymology

actual (“real, true, veritable”) + -ly

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA: /ˈæk.tʃu.ə.li/

• Audio (US)

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  (file)

• (US, nonstandard) IPA: /ˈæk.ʃə.li/

Adverb

Actually (not comparable)

1. (modal) In act or in fact; really; in truth; positively.

   Actually, I had nothing to do with that incident.

Alternative forms

• actially (nonstandard)

Notes

• In some other languages a word of similar spelling means "now" or "currently"; (e.g., Portuguese "atualmente" Spanish "actualmente", French "actuellement", German "aktuell", Italian "attualmente", Czech "aktuálně"). This leads many non-native speakers of English to use "actually" when they mean "now".
• Some commentators have:
  1. remarked upon the irony that this qualifier of veracity often introduces an utter lie; and,
  2. noted that in many cases, actually functions as little more than a vacuous emphatic utterance.
• In practice, actually and its synonyms are often used to preface an opinion rather than a fact (as per 'vacuous emphasis' note above).

This is actually a really beautiful song.

Synonyms

• in reality
• literally
• really
• truthfully

Thesaurus

absolutely; assuredly; certainly; clearly; de facto; decidedly; demonstrably; factually; for a certainty; for real; forsooth; genuinely; historically; in actuality; in all conscience; in effect; in fact; in reality; in truth; in very sooth; indeed; indeedy; indubitably; literally; manifestly; nothing else but; noticeably; observably; obviously; of a truth; patently; positively; quite; really; really-truly; sensibly; seriously; truly; unambiguously; undeniably; undoubtedly; unmistakably; verily; veritably; visibly; with truth; without doubt

Translations

really

Arabic: فعلاً (ar) (fi`lan) Bulgarian: всъщност (bg), в действителност (bg) Catalan: de fet (ca), en realitat (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 究竟 (cmn) (jiūjìng), 其實 (cmn), 其实 (cmn) (qíshí) Dutch: eigenlijk (nl), in werkelijkheid (nl), feitelijk (nl) Estonian: tegelikult (et) Finnish: itse asiassa (fi), oikeastaan (fi), varsinaisesti (fi) French: en fait (fr), effectivement (fr) (not: actuellement) German: eigentlich (de) Hebrew: למעשה (le'ma'ase) Hungarian: tulajdonképpen (hu)

Italian: realmente (not: attualmente), davvero (it), realmente (it) Japanese: 本当に　(ほんとうに, hontō ni); 実際に (jissai ni), 実は (jitsu wa) Norwegian: faktisk (no), for øyeblikket (no), i virkeligheten (no), reelt sett (no) Persian: در واقع, در حقیقت Polish: właściwie (pl), naprawdę (pl), faktycznie (pl) Portuguese: na verdade, realmente (not: atualmente) Russian: действительно (ru) (dejstvítel’no), вообще-то (ru) (voobščé-to), на самом деле (ru) (na sámom déle) Spanish: en realidad (es), de hecho (es), realmente (es), de vero (es), de hecho (es) Swedish: verkligen (sv), egentligen (sv), faktiskt (sv), i själva verket (sv) Turkish: aslında (tr) Vietnamese: thực sự (vi)